Why is it Never Easy
by lalas
Summary: Lily finally gives in to her feelings and impulsively kisses James. James is so shocked that she manages to escape before he has a chance to stop her. This is the story of the gruelling search James has to endure trying to find the suddenly elusive Evans.
1. He's Everywhere

_Oh, n__ot good! _

_Not good! _

_Crap, s__o not good at all! _

_Duck!_

--

"Lily, are you feeling alright?" Jennifer Marlow asked in a worried voice.

"Of course I am, whatever makes you think that I'm not?" Lily asked, peeking her head around the piece of armour she was currently hiding behind.

"Well… because you seem to be developing a rather unattractive twitch…_that_ and you keep trying to hide behind things, like some really poor version of James Bond—you do realise it's taken us almost twenty minutes just to get halfway to lunch!"

Lily looked at the girl in front of her for so long that Jennifer was starting to feel a little uncomfortable when Lily finally said "And your point is?"

"The whole trip has never taken us more than ten, and that includes that time in first year when we got lost!"

Lily seemed to contemplate that before shaking herself and straightening up from her slightly hunched position, she then said, in as dignified voice as possible, "Don't be ridiculous it hasn't been that long and I am _not_ developing a twitch!"

"Whatever you say _crazy lady_—Oh hey, Potter!" said Jennifer in polite greeting having seen said boy approaching in her peripheral vision.

"Marlow, how's it going?"

"Oh fine, but Lily's acting a bit weird—you didn't do anything to her, did you?" she smiled.

"Not as far as I'm aware," he chuckled "I can ask the boys if you like, but, honestly, I'd like to think they'd know better by now, especially after the pink glitter incident."

Then, the smile fading from his face, James asked, in a concerned voice, "So what's the matter with her, is she okay?"

"I know you two have only just started to get along, but you can't honestly think that is normal behaviour," Jennifer said, gesturing behind her to where Lily had been standing only moments before.

"Err, Marlow, either I'm missing something or you've bumped your head really hard–"

Looking around in bewilderment Jennifer turned a full circle looking for Lily, not being able to find her.

"I could have sworn—" she began to say in a voice that suggested she was questioning her own sanity.

She leaned around the armour Lily had taken a liking to just moments before but found no sign of her.

"Umm, Marlow, are _you_ feeling okay? Did you lose something?"

"Yeah, Lily!" she replied in a high pitched voice.

James seemed to ponder that announcement for a second before putting the pieces together. "Oh! Did those idiotic sixth years 'accidentally' spill some invisibility potion again?!—I'll kill them!"

"No, no!" she said hurriedly, raising her arms in a placating gesture. "Or at least I don't think so?" Jennifer added quietly to herself checking the floor at her feet quickly.

"Yeah well I think I'll pay the little idiots a visit just in case, you would have thought they'd learned their lesson the last time they crossed me!" he finished angrily and with a slightly maniacal gleam in his eye, before striding back off in the direction he'd come without so much as a good bye .

"He's doing it on purpose you know," Lily said into Jennifer's ear, seeming to materialise from nowhere.

"Merlin, Lily!" Jennifer said, putting a hand to her now rapidly beating heart. "Don't scare me like that, and where the hell did you go anyway?" she finished her brow furrowing.

"Oh nowhere," Lily said airily. "Been here the whole time—yep, the whole time."

"But you were right—right there and… and then you were—you know what I don't think I even want to know. My head hurts now and I'm beyond caring, but, Lily, if I'm not fed in the next ten minutes I'm going to have to start eating you!"

"Oh, _humm_, what did you say—oh right lunch… yes, lunch is a very good idea!" Lily said as she started to walk like a relatively normal human being again and in the right direction for the Great Hall.

Jennifer watched Lily in total confusion for a moment before catching up and attempting to match her stride "Okay I'll bite—you're acting too strange for it to be ignored—who's doing what on purpose?"

"James!" Lily hissed, stopping completely, like a frightened animal, her eyes scanning the corridor rapidly as if she expected James to fall from the rafters and ambush her.

Jennifer groaned at the lack of forward momentum but decided the only way she was going to get anywhere near lunch that day was to deal with the situation as swiftly as possible. "What about James?"

"He's everywhere," she whispered, looking at Jennifer with wide eyes.

"Okay, slightly insane person—could you please let my friend Lily back out now?" Jennifer asked in a quite voice, trying to make as few sudden movements as possible. "She's sensible, speaks in full sentences, and doesn't disappear without any warning—You know… _Lily_."

"No, you don't understand!" Lily said urgently. "He's _everywhere"_

"_Riiight_. Everywhere, you say?" Jennifer said a little mockingly but also with real worry for her friend.

"Yeah, _everywhere_!"

"He not here right now—is he?" Jennifer said spinning around quickly half expecting to find James staring at her with the same deranged glint Lily seemed to have acquired.

Not finding him she turned back to Lily slight calmer and with an expectant look on her face "I'm afraid I'm going to have to have you explain."

"He's in prefect meetings; he even tries to run them!"

"Yes, well he _is_ Head Boy."

"He's on patrols telling students off for being out of bounds and such!"

"Gonna have to resort to my previous answer again: he's _Head Boy_, isn't that what Head Boys are _supposed_ to do?"

"He's at Quidditch Games."

"Dude, he's Gryffindor captain! If either of you are out of place at a Qudditch match, I'm afraid it's you, you weirdo."

"He's sitting at the same table as me in Potions, Transfiguration, _and_ Charms!"

"Yeah, well they're really small classes, only the very best were allowed to progress to NEWT level! What do you want the poor boy to do?—Sit on his own, like some outcast, just so he isn't invading your apparently, extremely large personal bubble?"

"He's in the common room!"

"Yes, well he lives in Gryffindor tower too. Are you seriously trying to exclude him from his own bed as well as his classes now?"

"What about Hogsmeade visits, huh? He's everywhere there too!"

"Good Godric! You're even trying to exclude him from weekend trips?! It's a small village and there are only so many things seventh years want to do, he's not the only one there you know," Jennifer almost shouted, starting to lose patience with Lily. She took a deep breath before saying "Has it occurred to you that it's not that he's _suddenly_ everywhere—it's more you're suddenly just _noticing_ he's everywhere?"

"Don't be silly, why would I suddenly be noticing? And anyway I've always noticed! How could I not, when he wouldn't leave me alone for two years?!"

"No, it's more than that… It's not just noticing that he's there—I've never seen you freak out like that over anyone—you came close when you fancied—" Jennifer trailed off staring at Lily with wide eyes and then in a hushed voice she said "It's finally happened, hasn't it?"

"What has?" Lily asked shifting uneasily from foot to foot.

"It's finally happened! You've noticed James; you finally see what almost everyone else can see! And—and you _like_ it… you like what you see! That's why you're acting like an escapee mental patient –"

"I'm not the crazy one!" Lily said loudly, ruffling her hair and making herself look even more idiotic in the process. "James is!—he's _changed_…" she said, drawing out the last word.

"_Changed_?" Jennifer said mimicking Lily's tone of voice and starting to find a great deal of humour in the situation. "He looks the same to me Lily—perhaps a little taller and more filled out from last year, but he's still got the same hair, same glasses, same untidy style of dress, same tattoo that suddenly appeared last year—so hot by the way—same old James."

"No! No, he's not! He's changed!"

"You're starting to get a little redundant now Lily."

"He's changed," Lily replied while Jennifer groaned. "And I can't work out if it's genuine or if…"

"If?" Jennifer prodded gently, grateful beyond words that they were starting to get somewhere.

"Or if he just has some ulterior motive, some scheme, some grand masterful plan!"

"To do what, Lily?" Jennifer laughed. "Do you honestly think he has some grand master plan to take over the world?"

Judging form the look in her eyes Lily really did see that as a possibility. So, deciding she should perhaps treat the situation a little more seriously, Jennifer said "Uh, Lils, maybe this is a stupid question, but I feel like it needs to be asked: if you don't fancy him then why do you care? Why are you avoiding him?"

"I don't and I'm not!"

"– Oh for the love of chocolate! How could you even say that with a straight face? You should see yourself, you're hiding from him! And I don't care what you say, your right eye is starting to twitch!—What's the matter, Lils? Worried that if you spend more than ten second in his presence you may pounce on him like you did when you fancied Michael Reeves?"

"Shut up—and _NO_— I have more self restraint now! I was fourteen, for goodness sake, are people never going to let me forget that?!"

"Oh ho, so you admit to _having_ to use self restraint?!"

Lily threw her hands up in the air. "You're making it impossible to have a rational conversation!"

"Me?" Jennifer laughed incredulously. "Sorry to break it to you, love, but I'm not the one being irrational here."

"I am _not_ being irrational, I do not have and twitch and I am _not_ hiding from him!"

"No—okay …well then here's your chance to prove me wrong," Jennifer said with her own maniacal glint before shoving Lily roughly away from her and strolling off at a leisurely pace towards the lunch she had been desperate for for the last hour or so.

Lily had closed her eyes the moment she'd hit the hard warm body knowing full well that when she opened them she would find none other than James Potter.

"Oh, Lily, there you are! I was a little worried after talking to Marlow. Are you aright? Still completely visible and all?"

Lily nodded her head quickly desperately trying to avoid eye contact. "I'm fine," she squeaked.

"Oh well then… that's good! –- but – but I think I may have just unfairly accused and then unnecessarily punished some Ravenclaw boys… I should probably talk to a Professor about that… _anyway_ I'm glad to see you're alright—"

Lily interrupted him. "Am I irrational?"

James's eyebrows scrunched together, but being used to strange questions from his friends answered her anyway, jokingly "Only when it comes to me. In fifth year you seemed to develop a deep hatred for my general person, I thought that was terribly irrational of you at the time."

Seeing her terrified at the thought of being irrational he dropped the joking attitude by saying "But it makes a little more sense to me now that I'm older and wiser and can look back and see just what a silly bugger I was."

Lily smiled gratefully at his answer before asking "Do I walk funny?"

That time James laughed out right "No, not even a little funny. It's actually quite sexy, especially when you do that little hip sway of yours."

She hit his shoulder lightly, blushing, before looking him full in the eyes. And suddenly she felt like she couldn't breathe but she carried on her questioning regardless "Do—do I have a twitch?" she stuttered

Finally having eye contact and able to see the fire in Lily's eyes James gave her a piercing look before saying "Well you've never had one before and trust me when I say I would have noticed," he said, blushing a tiny bit himself. Then, taking the time to scan her face properly, he said "Nope, no twitch, not that I can see anyway.

She looked at him with obvious relief so he continued "Don't worry, Lily, even with a twitch I'd still think you were beautiful –" the rest of James's sentence was cut off abruptly when he found Lily's lips suddenly on his. James just stood there for the barest hint of a second before he started to respond, demandingly as if he'd been waiting forever to taste her and now that he had he couldn't get enough and, before Lily really had time to process what was happening, she was wrapped securely in his arms and being dragged back into an alcove.

_It took at least fifteen seconds __this time. An improvement, is it not? _Lily thought smugly to herself before realising where she was and where exactly she had her tongue. The moment she did fully realise and had had time to consider the consequence of her unplanned actions, she pushed him off her and hurried away as fast as her weak knees would allow.

_He wasn't following her. __Shit_.

--

A/N

Oohh a new one!

I was attempting a new one shot and this literally just rose up for the depths of my mind with absolutely no warning

It will be a multi chap but I'm not sure how long yet –and don't worry I'm going to try my hardest not to let it interfere with Object of Desire – I'm ahead as far as those chap go anyway – and this should be quite short – so no need to worry!

I hope you like it!

Thank you to the marvellous cosmopolitan – who not only beta's for me but also through some of email to each other inadvertently inspired certain elements of this first chap!

Mwah x


	2. Imbeciles

_What the fuck!_

_Wait…wait …Okay wow!_

_Just wow!_

_Is this really happening – or is it just my overactive imagination again?_

--

He had been kissing Lily like his life depended on it and she had been returning in kind. But then she made this weird sound like a frightened animal, ripped her mouth away and scampered off as quickly as her sexy little legs could carry her, bumping into the corridor wall on the way.

_Funny little fish_ his mind absently chuckled. But James's body stood rooted to the spot watching the place from which she had left for at least a minute before his brain managed covey to his body the fact that he wasn't kissing Lily anymore. By the time he regained enough control to follow her, however, she was long gone.

Panicking and his muddled brain not knowing what else to do, he acted on instinct, James bellowed into the silence of the empty corridor "SIRIUS!"

When there was no movement or sign of his best mate he yelled again "SIRIUS!"

James cast his eyes down towards his watch—when a minute had gone by he looked up and checked both ends of the corridor "SIRIUS!"

"WHAT?!" asked a panting Sirius from behind him.

James whirled and his eyes flicked to the swaying tapestry behind him, briefly noting in the back of his mind that that must have been where Sirius had come from, seeing as it was an often used shortcut of theirs. Instead of commenting on that he shouted wildly "SIRIUS!" grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking him violently, his face mere inches away, eyes wild, all adding to the unhinged aura he had been giving off for the last five minutes

Sirius, who was shocked out of his wits, lost all colour in his face, and his eyes bugged out of his head. James, seeing that, realised he was he was scaring him and quickly let go.

"What the dickens is wrong?! What's this all about—Great Agrippa, I nearly pissed myself," Sirius said jokingly looking down just to be absolutely certain that that was not the case

"Sorry," James mumbled adjusting his robes self consciously, then saying, in a relatively normal and polite voice, "You've had better times, what kept you?"

"Yes, well I'm not at your beck and call, you know!" Sirius replied grumpily and lightly shaking out his much abused shoulders, "I have a life of my own—and it's lunch time—I don't linger in the shadows just waiting for the moment you need me!"

James gave him a serious look. "Liar."

"That was one time! And I wasn't hovering in the shadows, I was getting ready to cover you in stink sap!"

When James merely raised his eyebrows disbelievingly Sirius cried "How many times do I have to say it?! I was _not_ watching you sleep, it was supposed to be a PRANK!"

Seeing as James just continued to stare at Sirius he finally gave up. "Look, now is not the time to debate this for the _four hundredth_ time! Why the hell were you bellowing for me? I thought you were hurt or being attacked or something!"

"Lily kissed me," James said, without preamble and momentarily shocking Sirius into silence.

Then: "No! You've got to be shitting me?! Where?"

"Where do people normally kiss? She made out with me—in order to do that she had to kiss me on the mouth" James said, giving Sirius a strange look.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Imbeciles! How do you expect me to work when you only give me imbeciles –" he mumbled, looking upwards as if praying for strength. He looked back to James's wide eyes and quietly said to himself "I'm getting far too old for this –"

Then to James: "_No_" he said slowly. "Not where on your person did she kiss you, where were you at the _time_."

James took two steps to his left, looked around himself with a thoughtful expression before answering "bout here."

Sirius stared at him trying to figure out if James was being serious, seeing the look on his face he decided it was indeed meant to be a serious comment and he had to hold himself back from laughing like a loon. He managed, but just barely, and really only because James looked so lost and confused. That and the fact that just because he was being nice at the moment, didn't mean that event wouldn't be used for ammunition in the future. To be honest, it wasn't often one got material like that on James; he really wasn't normally that thick. There was no way Sirius was going to waste it.

"You're sure?"

"It's not something I'm bloody likely to forget, is it?!"

"Right, right just thought I'd check." Sirius hurried to say.

"So how'd it happen, surely Lily Evans didn't just attack you in the middle of a corridor?"

"Actually, that pretty much _is_ what happened… we were talking and she was asking all these really weird questions, acting all edgy and then I complimented her and the next thing I knew her tongue was in my mouth and I had her pressed into that wall over there, and then—then she was…gone…"

"Huh, never would have guessed. She doesn't seem the type, a little barmy and unpredictable at times to be sure, but still…so how was it?"

"Brilliant," he said, his eyes glossing over. "It was officially the best kiss of my life. I just wish I'd had a little more warning, that way I might have been coherent enough to take it all in."

"Okay so _if_ it really did happen—"

"It happened!" James cried loudly and a little frantically so.

"Okay, okay! So it happened and it was great, right?"

"Yeah," James sighed in a perfect imitation of a love struck first year.

"So…If it was so great, where is she, and why the frantic yelling for me, shouldn't you be off in a broom cupboard with her somewhere, proposing marriage or, whatever else it is you 'commitment' types do when you're alone?"

James eyes regained the lost and wretched look with that question. "I don't know," he said quietly. "She went that way," he pointed pathetically. "And by the time I was ready to follow her she was gone—and—and that's when I called for you," he finished in a childlike voice.

"Ah, yes, well that would be rather discouraging; it would also explain the slightly hysterical bellowing. You've never been able to think logically when it involves Lily," Sirius hummed thoughtfully before his face morphed into incredulousness. "Wait, wait, back up!—instead of trying to find her, you called for me? What are you, a homo?!"

"What! No!—And if I am Lily is a very pretty man!"

Sirius covered a laugh with his hand. "Stop making jokes."

James looked offended at the thought, but sobered quickly when Sirius, master prankster, said "Stop dicking about, this is serious! This is Lily, this is what you've been waiting for and I've had to listen to you piss and moan about it the whole time you were waiting! I can't believe after all this time you couldn't gather up enough common sense to _look_ for her without me having to tell you to do it!"

Seeing James's once again panic stricken face Sirius grabbed James's wrist and checked his watch. "Look I'd say you have _about_ a three and half hour window before you lose all chance you ever had with her."

"Why three and a half hours?" James asked, looking confused and worried at the same time.

"Because in three and a half hours the school day will officially be over, and ten minutes after that I would bet my broomstick that Lily will be ensconced in her bedroom hiding. If you miss that window of opportunity, if you don't find her before she goes up those stairs… Lily will think you don't want it enough, that you couldn't be bothered to search for her properly—she'll think that if she means as much to you as you have been saying she does, that you'll have torn the school apart trying to find her. She will also become more and more mortally embarrassed the longer it takes you to find her—before long she won't be able to face you at all."

"But—but how will I find her? I've already lost fifteen minutes talking to you and the school is huge!" James said gesturing weakly to the long corridor they were standing in. "She could be anywhere."

Sirius looked at James as if he were the stupidest person he' ever met. "What do you think we spent two years on the Map for?!—Just for the kicks, I nearly lost my right pinky finger and you _did_ lose an eyebrow—don't you remember how long it took to grow back?! Lets not even mention the damage to the dorm!"

"Right! The MAP!—Wait. No."

"No?!" Sirius half screamed.

"No. What if she doesn't want me to find her, she ran away for goodness sake—that's not exactly conclusive evidence proving she like's me—I would actually say that points to her disliking me – Oh fuck, what if she didn't think the kiss was brilliant? What if my breath smells—I did just have lunch?" having said that, he leaned forward and blew a heavy breath onto Sirius's face.

Stunned into stillness, Sirius just stared at James before saying, in a quiet yet carrying voice, "_Never_ do that again," before scrunching his nose and taking a delicate and hesitant sniff. "You're fine, smells like treacle tart."

Heaving a sigh of relief, James mumbled, "Good, that's good, treacle tart is Lily's favourite – Still, I don't think I can face her."

"Don't be ridiculous! What, you're too much of a pansy to go talk to the girl who put her tongue in you mouth in the middle of a corridor?—I don't think she's that adverse to your company any more! Grow a pair and go find her right now! She couldn't really do anything worse than what you've already endured from her—and anyway if you don't, I'm going to make that baby picture I stole from your mother into a pamphlet and put a copy of it on every plate in the Great Hall just before breakfast!"

"What picture?! You wouldn't dare!" James shouted, panicking again.

"Oh, James, it's unlike you to be so naïve," Sirius said, shaking his head gravely.

"Okay, I'm going, I'm going. Where's the Map?"

"No idea," Sirius had to shout because James was already running down the corridor.

--

A/N

Well?

This is very different from most of my other stuff and so I would really love some encouragement - I hope you liked it

x


	3. Intimidation

_Map__?…No doodles _

_Map?…No, hah Moony's diary_

_Must find the map!_

_Ah ha—no that's Peter's homework!_

_PETER!_

--

"PETER?!" James screamed from amidst the pile of discarded clothes, books, quills and all manner of the other things he had thrown out of his trunk in pursuit of the illusive Marauder's Map.

"PETER?!"

"What is it with you and shouting today?" Sirius asked entering gracefully through the door, stepping over what had, only moments before, been a rememberall, and upon seeing it he laughed. "Do us a favour and don't accidentally throw any dung bombs!"

He then continued to amusedly scan the chaos James had created, he whistled through his teeth. "Moony is _not_ going to like this."

"Well the clean freak can just shove it for all I care!" James said, roughly shoving his hand through his hair. "A lot of bloody good it's done me!—He promised that it would make life easier if I was organised—you know what, he _lied_—I still couldn't find what I wanted when I wanted it, so cleanliness can just kiss my arse!— PETER!"

"Okay...Why are you yelling for Peter anyway?" Sirius asked confusedly, just as the boy came stumbling through the door.

"What's the problem—holy harpy what happened in here—have we been robbed?" Peter asked in a shocked voice as he straighten himself out and quickly entered the room.

Before Peter could ask any more questions, however, he was accosted by James. He found himself pushed in to the wall, his robes scrunched tightly in James fist. He looked up into the dilated pupils of an angry and crazed James and froze.

"What is it?" he finally managed to stutter.

"The Map!—You—you had it last! Where is it? Tell me _now_!"

When Peter didn't answer fast enough James shook him and demanded in an even louder voice "Where is it?!"

"Hey, James, ease up man," Sirius interrupted the interrogation with a frown. James's neck turned his head slowly to look at Sirius and he stared at him as if he couldn't comprehend what it was Sirius was saying.

"How do you even know he was the one who had it last? I mean, shouldn't you check your facts before you start attacking people?"

"He had it last, I was the one who gave it to him," James said as if that closed the matter, before turning back to stare fiercely at Peter.

"Well even if that's true, I don't think he can breathe. How do you expect him to think and answer you properly if he can't breathe?" Sirius asked logically.

James response, however, was to look at him blankly.

Rolling his eyes Sirius gestured to Peters newly blue face before putting his hand over the one James had Peter's robes in a death grip with, and slowly pealed away the fingers.

James, catching on and shocked at his own actions, said "Sorry Pete." He released him and set about straightening out his crumpled robes, a little too roughly, and then, still just a little on edge, he asked "Would you be so kind as to inform me of the whereabouts of our beloved Marauders' Map?"

"There now, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Sirius mocked, earning himself a dark look from James.

Peter coughed and rubbed at his chest and neck for a second, before he registered what James was asking him and his face paled "Ah yes, well about that—I've been meaning to tell you—"

"Tell us what?" asked Sirius, who was now lying casually on his bed, surreptitiously casting a wary eye towards James who was now shaking in an effort to restrain himself.

"Well you see—I was walking to the kitchens a few nights ago and I wasn't really watching the Map and—"

"Get to the fucking point!" James yelled, too impatient to listen to the whole story.

"—It got confiscated and I got a detention," Peter said as quickly as his still depleted air supply would allow.

"WHAT?!" both James and Sirius bellowed in unison and Peter once again found himself being pushed roughly against the wall, but that time he was being assaulted by Sirius.

"You lost the bloody Map—how, when—why the hell didn't you tell us?! We could have gotten it back!"

"We still can!" Peter frantically tried to reassure him. "Don't worry, I wiped it clean—they probably just thought it was a spare bit of parchment!" he continued in what he hoped was a bright and bracing voice.

"Great, so not only do we _not_ have the map, but we have to search every blank piece of parchment in the castle trying to locate it, probably only to eventually find that some first year has scribbled all over our years of research and effort with a crayon!"

Stricken at the thought Peter hurried to said "I'm really sorry—this is exactly why I was scared to tell you!"

"Damn right you should be scared, honestly how could you lose the Map?! The MAP!" Sirius growled giving him one more disgusted look before releasing him roughly and stalking away over to James who was facing the far wall, leaning his forehead on it, and, repeatedly, whispering "Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap."

"It's alright, Prongs, _we'll_ get it back," he said, loud enough so that Peter could hear him and putting a reassuring hand on James's back.

"Yeah, I know, but not in enough time to find Lily," James said miserably, not once lifting his head.

Sirius who had gotten caught up in the loss of the Map swore loudly at the reminder of their previous predicament and threw a scorching look at Peter before reassuringly saying to James "It's fine, we can still find her, it's just not going to be as easy as it originally would have been but—"

"Not as easy?! Not as easy??" James bellowed, his voice taking on a hysterical edge. "Padfoot, according to your estimation I have approximately—" James stopped, casting an eye towards his watch, "—three hours to find her, tell her I love her, convince her it's true and then beg her to go on a date with me and kiss me again—somehow," he finished desolately, "I don't think that's enough time."

"Oh stop whining, are you a man or not?!—Scratch that, are you a Marauder or not?!—We have tried and succeeded to do much more challenging things than this. Yes, it may be hard and it may be difficult—" Sirius said, standing up straight as a poker and mockingly hooking his thumb onto his collar in an attempt to look like a General addressing his troupes. "—But we have overcome worse and I'll be dammed if I'm going to let you give up now!"

"Here, here," said an amused voice by the door.

Sirius spun and James moved his head slightly so it was angled so he could see who it was.

Remus was there helping an upset looking Peter up from the floor and surveying the room disapprovingly, but, wisely, chose not to comment.

"See, Moony agrees and that's always a good sign," said Sirius jokingly.

"Thanks Sirius," Remus said, rolling his eyes. "Your confidence in me makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside—So Lily? I take it we need to find her and fast?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Sirius asked in a sarcastic voice.

"Well other than the fact I witnessed most of this –" he gestured around him, "_commotion_. I also saw Lily scurrying past the Great Hall like a pack of Dementors were at her heels and I figured that with the way she's been acting around you recently Prongs that it had to have something to do with you."

"You saw Lily?!" James asked quickly, and then, frowning heavily, said "Why the hell didn't you say so sooner?!"

"Calm down James," Sirius said lazily, noticing James's wand hand twitch. "Lets not repeat the incident with Wormtail, Remus will be a lot less prone to help you if you use unnecessary force and intimidation as a technique."

"Yes and even if you did resort to Neanderthal means," Remus drawled sarcastically. "I can't tell you anything more than I just did. All I saw was Lily running like the wind through the main hall; I don't think she even noticed me."

"Still, it's a place to start."

"Start what Prongs?"

"Start looking."


	4. Let the Search Begin

They were assembled together on the marble staircase just staring at each other, each waiting for the other to speak, when Sirius finally said "Okay, so we checked the common room on the way out and we sent that little midget who is now _absolutely_ terrified of Prongs to check her dorm."

"Yeah, so where do we look next?" asked Peter wringing his hands

"Well let's think logically, what time is it?" Sirius asked the group

"One." supplied James helpfully.

"And where was she last spotted?" Sirius questioned lightly

"Main hall." Answered Remus

"Exactly, and what is coming to an end at one and takes place near the main hall?" Sirius prodded.

"Lunch!" Peter cried.

"That's right, lunch is just about to end!" James almost yelled in his excitement. "Lily might be there!"

Seeing James's eyes brighten like an excited house elf's Sirius felt the need to warn him. "Now don't get too excited. If she really is avoiding you, she isn't likely to be anywhere that obvious or out in the open, is she?"

"Thanks for that, Padfoot, but do you think at any point today you might decide to stop just telling me things that _aren't_ going to work, and start being bloody useful?!"

"Look, don't get pissy with me—had you let me finish my sentence I would have said that Lily may not be there but some of her _friends_ might be, and they might be able to point us in the right direction."

"Oh, okay, then you're forgiven."

"Gee thanks, did you hear that boys?" Sirius said, turning with faux joy to the rest of the group. "I'm _forgiven_—At least I'm having ideas instead of a constant stream of brain farts you pompous idiot!" he said turning back to James.

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"It means that if it wasn't for me and my _uselessness_ you'd still be standing on the third floor, making incoherent whimpering noises and being gawked at by eleven year olds!"

"Hey, I seriously never thought _it_ would happen—I had even reconciled myself to that fact! My brain is still trying to process the fact that Lily kissed me! Give me a break—I'm a little confused right now!" James defended himself fiercely without breaking his stride towards the Great Hall.

He burst through the doors skidding to a stop allowing his eyes time to frantically scan the Gryffindor table, not immediately finding her, he shouted "MARLOW?!"

"Seriously, James," Sirius said, following him through the entrance. "I know this is a very serious problem that you have at the moment, but stop shouting! People can hear you just fine and it's almost as quick and twice as polite to take the extra time and walk up to a person and address them _normally_."

"That's nice, Padfoot, but if you waste any more of my time with your waffle, I'm going to have to hurt you and then dismiss you from Lily patrol."

Sirius rolled his eyes but kept his mouth shut, especially when he took note that James was no longer shouting, but steaming down the isle towards where poor, unsuspecting Jennifer was sitting. He took comfort in the small improvement, realising it was probably the best he was going to get.

--

She raised her fork to her mouth eyes closed in readiness for what was going to be her first, delicious and long overdue bite of food. She vaguely heard someone yelling her name in the back ground, she hesitated before choosing to ignore it, she was too hungry to care.

What she couldn't ignore, however, as she attempted a second time to take a bite, was the second year frantically pulling on her sleeve.

"What do you want small person?" she growled, still staring at the food. "I'm not one of those helpful seventh years—that's my other friend, the one with the red hair, go find her!" When the relentless tugging carried on regardless she snarled "If you don't stop touching me right now, you're going to lose that arm."

The poor kid was so frightened after that that all he managed to do was point warningly to the charging blur that was James Potter. Just as her brain registered the face she found he was already at her side, eyeing her furiously. She eyed him back blankly, when he still didn't say anything she mentally shrugged her shoulders and attempted to take a bite for the third time.

But it was not to be, the food was so close, the smell was overwhelming, but just as it was about to touch her lips Sirius threw himself down into the other seat next to her, jarring her and knocking her fork out of her hand.

She wanted to cry; she looked up angrily, and came face to face with four eager faces.

"There's plenty to go around so get your own!" she said, misunderstanding their stares and possessively covering her plate smacking Sirius's hand as it began to sneak towards her plate.

"Look, Marlow," James started crossly then, seeing out of the corner of his eye all his friends violently shaking their heads and taking note of the vicious gleam in the usually kind eyes of Jennifer Marlow, he decided it might be in his health's best interest to amend his approach. "Sorry, _Jennifer_," he said, attempting to smile, but looking more deranged than ever.

She looked at him as if he'd gone mad, but sat silently waiting for him to say what ever it was he wanted to say.

"Would you be so kind as to tell me where Lily is? It's rather important and time really is of the essence."

Jennifer stared for so long that James started to shift uncomfortably in his seat.

Then suddenly: "Galloping gargoyles—first Lily and now you four, is there something in the water—has everyone been taking illegal substances without telling me—no wait I know! It's a conspiracy, no one wants me to eat lunch today!— I'm obviously so fat that no one can bear to witness it anymore! Is that it? Well tough - you can just sod off it's my decision to be a fat heffer and this fat heffer is hungry!"

"She's a little crazy," Peter whispered nervously as he leaned as far away from Jennifer as he could.

"No shit," Sirius whispered back out of the side of his mouth so as not to be overheard by the terrifying girl next to him.

"You're not fat," Remus said ignoring the other two boys around him and addressing Jennifer, "Not even close and even if you were we would be the last people to tell you to stop eating, that's ridiculous, and quite honestly why would we care?"

"I feel so loved," she gave a half smile before remembering how they had stormed in, stopping her from eating and demanding she answer their questions. "Why the hell are you here then? If you don't want—"

James, having watched this conversation impatiently and in mute disapproval, finally snapped and interrupted Jennifer mid word, "Bugger this! I asked nicely and you ignored me so… Where's Lily?! Tell me now!"

"Oh James," sighed Sirius despairingly, even as he received his answer.

"I don't know," Jennifer answered looking at James wide eyed, too shocked by his nerve to do anything but answer. "Last I saw she was talking to you."

"Oh don't give me that I know she's hiding from me and I wont have it—I'll find her one way or another and trust me when I say it will be much pleasanter for everyone involved if we do this the easy way." James said, causing the other boys to wince at his tone and what it implied.

Surprised at the implied threat Jennifer blinked owlishly, briefly looking around the other members of the group hoping for some kind of hint as to what she was to do, finding nothing except the usual three gormless idiots staring back at her, she finally cracked and said harshly "Look! I haven't seen Lily. I don't know where she would be either! So whatever it is you need to find her for – probably to apologise for being prats– lets get one thing straight; _I _don't care what you did, where you did it, or how many detentions you're going to get for doing it—but by Merlin," she said, holding her knife up threateningly. "If you four gits aren't out of those seats, out of my sight, and away from my food in the next five seconds I'm going to show you the true meaning of the word wrath."

Taking the time to look into each of their wide, terrified, or, in the case of James, frenzied eyes she slowly and deliberately said "You may think Lily is bad, but, trust me, you have never seen destruction like mine—and I'm _particularly_ testy when people interrupt my food."

The boys nodded quickly, eyeing the knife carefully. Not being able to form appropriate words they made their exit as quickly and silently as four Marauders could.

Just as they were leaving the hall they heard a strangled yell and instinctually they all turned slightly to see where the commotion was coming from—almost instantly all eyes had fallen on Jennifer.

She was staring down in mute horror at her empty plate.

Lunch was obviously over.

And the boys decided that given their most recent encounter with her it was probably best to make an even swifter exit, none of them were stupid enough to hang around to see what happened next

"Damn," Peter said miserably once they had started walking down an adjacent corridor.

"What?" asked James mockingly, "Did you lose something else?"

"_No_. I was hungry too."

"Oh stop whining, we'll stop by the kitchens," Remus sighed before James had the chance to respond.

Seeing James's outraged look, Sirius added "You never know, Prongs, Lily might be there, she has to eat too."

--

They burst through the kitchen door, Peter attacking the nearest table with food on before the last of the four was even in the room

But he froze with his hand in the cookie jar—literally when he spotted the dark head of what was unmistakably Jennifer.

"How did she get here before us—wasn't she just in the hall?" Peter asked in a mildly terrified voice.

The all looked at each other warily, and each paused to hold their breath, after a few seconds they were just beginning to think it was safe when without even turning round she said, in possessed voice, "Come one step closer and I won't be responsible for my actions. The next person to come between me and food will not recover in time for _graduation_— now…bugger the hell off!"

"So we'll just be…" Remus started slowly backing towards the exit.

"Leaving," Sirius finished for him quickly, before turning tail and running with the rest of the boys close at his heals.

"Sure you haven't seen Lily?" James called, bravely poking his head back around the painting of the fruit.

The only answer was the sound of food thunking on the wall near James's head.

"_Right_, that would be a no then?" he asked, staring at the baked potato turned missile.

"NO!"

After hearing her answer he closed the portrait quickly and turned just in time to hear Sirius say "Well that was a waste of fifteen minutes."

"Not _helping_."

"Wasn't trying to."

--

A/N

I have most chap written but, I'm still open to ideas and would be willing to add a few more chaps if a suggestion inspires me – where do you think they should look? What obstacles would you like to see them encounter?


	5. Idiotic Ideas and Genius

"Who's idiotic idea was this again?" Peter whined as he coughed and irritably brushed a spider's web out of his face.

"Shut up, Wormtail, it's worth a try, isn't?" Sirius snapped back.

"Not _really_, we didn't exactly exhaust all the options back at the castle" Remus contributed.

"Now that I think about it, I have to agree," James worried.

"Yeah," sniffed Wormtail, "I mean how would _Lily_ _Evans_ even know how to get into Hogsmead without permission? Is it really something any of us can see her doing? And, honestly, how many people could possibly know about these passages except for us?"

"First of all, don't you remember last year when we snuck out for Halloween? We bumped into _Lily Evans_ in the Hogs Head, pissed as a fart, singing 'You're my Little Cauldron Cake' on top of a bar stool dressed as a fairy, with Emily, Lucy and Jennifer as her back up singers! It was the most ridiculous thing I think I ever seen in that pub!"

"Second of all, _we_ managed to find the passages didn't we?" Sirius continued, gesturing around himself for emphasis, stopping abruptly and spinning to face the three, navigating the passage behind him, "Are you really, _honestly_, so conceited that you think we are the only ones who could? Or even that we know about _all_ the passageways there are– there could be loads more that we don't even know about – who's to say she hasn't found one of her own and uses it on a regular basis!"

"I guess," grumbled Peter.

"Give him a break, Padfoot," Remus intervened. "I don't think any of us believes we are the only ones who _could_ figure it out, and I agree that there are probably loads more than on the map – the thing that I _am_ pretty sure about though is that _we_ were the only ones _stupid_ enough to go around inspecting paintings and whispering random words to inanimate objects in first year!"

"True."

"I guess you're right though, we did bump in to Lily and she had to have gotten out somehow." Wormtail conceded.

"Exactly!" Sirius cried in triumph.

"Ummm, actually guys, I've been meaning to tell you…I _may_ have been the one to show her the way out," said James, a little fearfully.

Receiving disbelieving stares from Remus and Peter and a smirk form Sirius, James was not surprised when Wormtail exploded out with "But what about the Marauder code of honour – we don't tell our secrets outside the group?!"

"What did you want me to do?!" James cried guiltily. "She came up to me and _sat_ in my _lap_ and _whispered_ in my _ear_ – Merlin, she's got a really _evil_ streak, she knew exactly how to make me give in – she promised to kiss me!"

Peter sighed, shaking his head pityingly. "Let's hope you never have important enough information that the other side would be forced to torture you – you wouldn't last a minute!"

"What did you expect me to do? _LILY_ TOLD ME SHE'D _KISS_ ME!" James cried defensively trying to explain himself again, stung at the insinuation that he would betray his friends.

"Poor, pathetic Prongs," chuckled Sirius, sidestepping a large rock. "Don't worry I trust you – I recon only Lily is capable of making you cave like that."

"Did you at least get your kiss?" Remus sighed with a tinge of amusement.

"_Well_…" stalled James.

Remus raised his eyebrows encouragingly.

"She kissed me on my cheek," James said quickly.

Seeing the others laughing at him he let out an irritated huff of air. "It was a sly move on her part, okay?! I was expecting a proper kiss!"

"Oh James," Remus smiled, shaking his head.

"What ever helps you sleep at night mate." laughed Sirius.

James puffed up angrily but quickly deflated. "Ah, who am I kidding it was my own fault… I should have stipulated the terms more thoroughly, but what can I say, I get a little air headed when it comes to Lily."

"How many times have I told you Prongs," Sirius said, shaking his head sadly, "Always have the terms set out before shaking on it."

"IT WAS LILY!" shouted James, looking at Sirius as if he was extremely simple and did not understand the seriousness of the situation. "And, honestly, back then even a kiss on the cheek was an improvement!"

Sirius laughed loudly at that, and even had to stop briefly to lean up against the dank wall of the passage.

"What was the point of all of this again?" complained Wormtail.

"We were debating the likelihood that Lily wouldn't be in Hogsmead – and stop moaning, Wormtail, you sound like a girl – aren't rats supposed to like dank, dark places?" sneered Sirius.

"Shut up!" Peter returned, sending Sirius a rude hand gesture.

"Well considering all that, I suppose it's possible," Remus interrupted sending the arguing half of the Marauders a quelling look.

"_See_, I'm always right!" Sirius shouted gleefully, but received a clump of dirt into his mouth for his efforts.

"I still think it's unlikely," mentioned Remus, grinning at a spluttering Sirius.

"Whatever, you'll be eating your words soon" Sirius eventually coughed arrogantly.

--

"I should have known she wouldn't be in Hogsmead," James said desolately.

"Well I knew it was unlikely."

"Then why the bloody hell did you let us go? We were all a little uncertain but you convinced us it was possible! This is serious; I could lose my chance with Lily you jack ass, stop fucking about with my life for your own sick amusement! You're supposed to be my best mate!"

"Well, she _could_ have been there, it wasn't impossible," defended Sirius. "We didn't know for certain and well… I really needed to stock up… it was _you_ who finished off the fire whisky last time you got rejected, wasn't it?" he finished with a poignant look.

"Who needs enemies when they've got friends like you lot?" James sighed instead of answering.

"Hey!" Peter and Remus cried indignantly.

James ignored them, turning directly to Sirius. "I haven't got the time to kill you right now but _you_ are now on my list!"

Peter and Remus stepped away from Sirius so fast they looked like two grey blobs.

"Ah come on James, don't hurt me I'm only little and I bruise like a peach…" Sirius simpered.

James snorted at the blatant lie but otherwise ignored him.

"Ahh come on, James," Sirius tried again, clapping his hands together and fluttering his eyelashes for effect. "I don't like being on the list – bad things happen to the people on the list…"

Continuing to ignore him, James admitted out loud "I don't know at what point I should have realised we had only been visiting the pubs – but I suppose it's my own fault for falling for it, I should know better by now!"

They spent the next few minutes wandering silently, James resorting to checking every nook and cranny he came across, his friend eyeing him with increasingly worried expressions.

"You know James I can't believe the way you're acting. You were doing so well at being mature and semi-responsible–" said Remus watching amusedly as James threw open a cupboard door with a cry of "HAH", but making a strangled noise when he found it empty. "I know this is Lily and that always makes you a little do-lally but you haven't been this deranged or off the wall since that prank in fifth year…I had thought maybe you'd really grown up or at least found some small measure of sanity –" Remus paused when James took that moment to leap around a pillar. "Obviously that was just a vain hope," Remus finished weakly.

"Says the man who nearly wet himself laughing last week when some third year used the oldest trick in the book; a whoopee cushion." interrupted Sirius with raised eyebrows.

"Shut up, Sirius," Remus said in as dignified a voice as he could manage whilst desperately trying to contain his smile, "the old one's are the best because its always funnier when people are stupid enough to fall for them – it's so classic – and it wasn't just _anyone_ it was professor Hoon!"

Ignoring that, Sirius sarcastically quipped "_Ahh_, a classicist." Then, losing the attitude, he said "Sometimes I think you're the worst one, because you pretend to be all good and noble and slightly disapproving, but, really, you're just as bad as the rest of us, just better at hiding it – you're a devious little scamp! You can't fool me!" Sirius finished loudly, waving his fist wildly in Remus's face.

Remus leaned back slightly to avoid getting hit and chuckled loudly at Sirius's antics.

"This is getting us nowhere," Peter interceded quietly. "Maybe we should split up – we could cover more ground – we'd be more likely to find her" he continued desperately trying to be helpful and effectively stopping Sirius and Remus's actions.

"True, but I don't think it would do us much good, because the moment she spots one of us she'll be away from us faster than a zebra moves from a tiger at dinner time," said Sirius.

"Poetic."

"Thank you, Remus, my good man."

Remus rolled his eyes. "Still, Prongs, Padfoot does have a point the only one of us she is ever going to stop for now, is you, and even then only if you make her."

"And even if we did find her," Sirius interrupted, "we would be back where we started, we'd have Lily but we wouldn't be able to find you, without the Map"

Seeing James eye darken at mention of the Map Peter quickly rushed to apologise for the fiftieth time that day "Sorry, sorry! – _No mention of the Map, please Padfoot!_ – Sorry"

"True, okay, so all in favour of sticking together, say 'aye'."

"Aye!" they all chorused in unison raising a hand above their head and in Remus and Sirius's case waving it frantically about.

"Stop it," said James, his mouth twitching into a smile. "This is serious so don't make me laugh. So right, okay, if – if you were a Lily, where would you be?" he asked thoughtfully.

"In a garden," Sirius answered with a completely straight face.

"In a flower box," Peter piped in with a hesitant smile.

"In a vase" Remus supplied, grinning widely.

"You're not helping. You gits! – And that was pathetic anyway. Definitely not up to your usual standards, I think you may be losing your touch!"

"Ah yes, but it served its purpose," nodded Sirius.

"Which was?" James sighed, frustrated.

"To aggravate you," Sirius said simply.

Moments later Sirius found James's wand pointing at his nose. "Now is the wrong time to test me, Padfoot, and I've been dying to try out that spell we found in Strange Applications of Everyday Charms. I was going to wait for the next time Snape pissed me off, but now's good too, I don't mind either way…" James trailed off suggestively.

"_My, my_, we are violent today – Look, we know you're upset and frantic," Sirius said in a slightly surprised voice, "but no need to insult and threaten us!"

Receiving a death glare instead of the smile he had hoped to incite Sirius quickly tried to placate James "Okay, _okay_, how about… the library?"

"Well it's certainly more productive than throwing open random doors hoping to catch her," said Remus with a poignant look at James.

"Of course the library!" said James lowering his wand and completely ignoring Remus's jab. "Why didn't I think of that??"

"Because you do not have half the genius in that huge head of yours that I have just in my little finger?" Sirius asked with an arrogant smile.

"The little finger you nearly severed clean off whilst doing a charm a second year could do, you mean?" Remus quipped.

Sirius turned to Remus stoned faced before showing him his middle finger.

"No, Sirius, that's not the pinky finger," Remus said, shaking his head sadly.

Sirius moved forward quick as lightening, pouncing at Remus and knocking them both to the floor, where they both wrestled heatedly for a moment before Sirius emerged from the mass of arms and legs with Remus's head trapped under his arm pit.

"Admit I am a genius… Admit it!" he said squeezing the head lock tighter.

When Remus failed to comply Sirius said in a singsong voice "Come on Moony how long do you think you can go with out air exactly? Earlier Wormtail was turning blue within a minute of James wrapping his hands round his neck – save yourself the bother and just ADMIT IT!"

"_Never_! Now piss off you idiot," coughed Remus, throwing a punch at Sirius ribs trying to get him to let go.

"Stop it you fuckers _please_!" sighed an aggravated James.

Both taking pity on James, hearing the desperation in his voice—Remus stopped throwing punches and Sirius let go of his head.

"Thank you," James said sarcastically.

"We'll finish this later teen wolf," whispered Sirius.

"Bring it on, arse sniffer" Remus said regally, as he stood up running his fingers through his hair in order to try and look presentable again. He coughed uncomfortably as two forth year girls walked past, eyeing him strangely, then disregarding them completely said "So onwards and upwards my good men?" giving a gesture of bowing deference and allowing the others to go before him up the stairs towards the library. Making sure to give Sirius a quick kick to the arse as he passed.

--

A/N

Woohooo a new chap and its super long – well for me anyway! AND I updated Object!

Thank you for the suggestions that some of you sent – a couple inspired me to write new chaps and a couple just confirmed I'd made the right choices about what I had already written

Speaking of which I have finished writing this story! (unless sudden inspiration stikes) – all the chaps need, are a bit of beta'ing and some brushing up and they're done! – in order to time the posting correctly though, I'm going to wait until I have ten reviews for each new chap before posting the next.

There are 11 chaps in all – that includes a short little epilogue – so if you want to find out where and when the finally confrontation with Lily happens you better get reviewing!

Thanks for reading

Ps. Its my brithday this week - so happy brithday to me!

x


	6. Voyeurism and Destruction

They reached the large doors to the library and James headed directly for the entrance without a second thought.

"Uh, guy's I – I can't go in there."

All three boys paused and turned to look at a slightly blushing Sirius.

After a moment of silence Remus decided to ask the most logical question on behalf of the group "Why?"

"Maybe he's frightened of all those books," Peter guessed with a smirk.

"Seriously?" snorted Remus, looking at Peter amusedly. "Don't be an idiot, Pete, he can't be afraid of books!" Then eyeing Sirius contemplatively he said "Sometimes I think he reads more than me and James combined, and that's saying something!"

"Yeah, Moony, but those aren't assigned books, he's very fussy. Peter might be right, all that _order_ and assigned reading … it's scary – it might be too much for him – he'll just be twitching to mess it up!" James grinned good naturedly.

"Indubitably" replied Remus grinning just like James and throwing a sideways look at Sirius.

"Oh bugger off! Both of you know full well I do _all_ my assigned reading and then some – and I am not afraid of the library, Wormtail," he said, frowning at the boy in question before adding spitefully. "By the way, when was the last time _you_ read a book?"

Peter stared at Sirius scornfully but soon looked away mumbling an apology.

"Okay then!" James said, clapping his hands and rubbing them together eagerly, half turning to open the huge set of doors again.

"No! Seriously, James, I can't go in there."

"Why in the world not?" Remus asked more seriously now, eyeing Sirius confusedly.

"Umm well you see… I – I was in there about a week ago, reading that article in Transfiguration Today – you know the one, Prongs, by Dr Marchmoss?"

"Yeah, I read it…. some weird ideas but overall his theories have some potential – well if he's right anyway…" replied James thoughtfully.

"_Yeah_, I know, what you mean, what did you think of his theory on–"

"Umm, guys, is now _really_ the time?" interrupted Peter quickly, knowing that once Sirius and James got started they could easily spend hours debating.

"Right – sorry" Sirius said, shaking his head a little. "– well anyway I was just finishing it and Georgina Morrison—"

"That really hot Ravenclaw sixth year?" interrupted an impressed Remus.

"Go Padfoot you horny old dog!" whooped James thumping him on the back.

Sirius looked at the floor uncomfortably blushing a little. "Well yes – anyway, Georgina had seen me reading it and had come over in her surprise – by the way, why are people always so surprised I read? I'm fifth in the whole year for goodness sake, I got _nine_ OWL's, its not like I'm an idiot! –"

James gave an impatient cough and Sirius quickly continued with the original story. "Well anyways she starts talking to me about it, saying how none of her friends are nearly as interested in the subject as her, how none of them can ever be bothered to actually read outside sources on the subject matter – about how _nice_ it would be to have _someone_ to discuss it with – and before I really knew it, she was dragging me down to the History of Magic stacks kissing me like I'm the air she breathes…"

"_Nice_," James exclaimed with a wink. "No one is ever down there – very _private_," he finished wiggling his eyebrows.

"Yeah, no one except Madam Cross anyway," Sirius said in a deadpanned tone.

James gave an exaggerated wince. "Oh"

"Yeah _oh_" Sirius replied sarcastically.

"So I take it, that it didn't end well then?" Remus inquired sympathetically.

"No, no it didn't," Sirius sighed miserably.

Seeing his friends' curious gazes, he shrugged before saying "Lets just say Georgina won't talk to me and I'm not allowed in the library for the rest of term."

"That's really crap mate. No one wants that hag interrupting… Or anyone interrupting for that matter…" added James after a moment of thought, "But—"

"But what?"

"Well, how come you didn't say anything before?" asked James seriously whilst Remus frowned lightly.

Sirius look back and forth between them before rolling his eyes and saying embarrassedly "Come on, it's not exactly a brilliant story, is it?"

"You're kidding, right?" James asked disbelievingly. "With all the crap I've been through with Lily – _that's_ embarrassment! That thing with Georgie… it was child's play!"

"And, anyway, it's hysterical," added Remus, smirking.

"Yeah, thanks, Remus," Sirius scathingly said. "But it's not _supposed_ to be hysterical. I lost out on a brilliant, gorgeous girl who can kiss like Lucifer himself _and_ the only way I can get books now is to use the invisibility cloak or get one of you idiots to get it for me!"

Sighing and conceding the point, seeing as Sirius was a little uncomfortable, James intervened "Right, fine, so you can't come in with us…so – so you wait here and we'll have a quick look without you," he said gesturing to the other two boys. "It shouldn't take long."

"That might be best," Sirius mumbled, already sliding down the wall pulling out a small paper back book in the process, settling himself comfortably on the floor.

--

Madam Cross eyed them warily and little hesitantly as they entered, James and Remus waved cheerily at her as they strolled across the highly polished wood floors their shoes squeaking offensively. Peter lowered his head and followed after them quickly.

When they reached the middle of the main study area, it was eerily quiet and decidedly lacking in the usual amount of students, which wasn't really all that surprising seeing as almost everyone should be in class, including them.

Despite the lack of people James still gave the area a cursory glance, revealing a small cluster of seventh years tucked away on some of the far tables out of Madam Cross's eye line.

Satisfied that none of them were Lily, James whispered "Okay, I think we can split up to look in here, it will be faster and if she _is_ in here and decides to make a run for it, it will be easier to intercept before she gets too far."

"Righto, Prongs," Remus said, strolling off in the direction of Defence Against the Dark Arts.

Peter trotted off in the direction of Potions without a word.

And James walked quickly in the direction of History of Magic – figuring what he had said earlier was correct; that if someone wanted privacy that was the most likely place they'd go.

--

Ten minutes later James was sat on a table, back in the middle of the main study area, rubbing his face roughly.

Sensing someone's eyes on him he looked up warily.

Seeing it was Remus, James asked eagerly "Anything?"

"No, sorry, nothing," he replied, shaking his head. "And obviously you had just as much luck?" Remus asked sympathetically.

"Obviously –" James said before his face contorted into a grimace. "I did manage to get an eyeful of Laura Smith and Paul Hope though."

"_Ergh_!" Remus grunted sticking his tongue out for good measure.

"Yeah."

"Witnessing something like that could scar a person for life!" said Remus horrified. "I didn't even see it and I feel a little traumatised."

James closed his eyes as if in pain before forcing his mind away from what he'd seen and asked "So I wonder where Pete got to?"

"Umm—" Remus started to answer.

"BUGGER!"

Hearing the familiar voice shout out both James and Remus whipped around just in time to see and hear the first crash of wood meeting wood. There was a cacophony of sound for a minute then suddenly after the final sounds of pages ripping and of glass smashing the room went blissfully silent again.

During the chaos James had jumped down off the table he'd been sat on and both boys now stood shoulder to shoulder their wands pulled out and pointed wildly at the area affected by the destruction.

"WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON HERE?! HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!" a loud voice shrilled cutting through the normally oppressive silence of the library.

James and Remus gave each other shocked and worried looks but relaxed a bit knowing that Madam Cross was already over there.

"Fuck, what the hell was that?" asked Remus, finally finding his voice again.

"Was anyone over there?!" returned James.

"Maybe we should go help," Remus said, taking a step in the direction of the mess.

As soon as the words were out of his mouth though Peter ran up, out of breath and with a page of a book stuck to his shoe "Everything is fine, nothing to worry about, just a _few_ broken shelves, I'm sure it can all be fixed – But _we_ need to leave! Right NOW!"

In response to this exclamation James and Remus just stared at Wormtail in opened mouthed awe, but before either of them had the chance to ask for a accurate definition of a _few_, they heard the sound of sharp and furious heels coming their way and a loud voice scream "DON'T THINK I DON'T SEE YOU LURKING THERE, MR PETTIGREW! AND IF YOU'RE HERE SO ARE THOSE OTHER MISCREANTS YOU CALL FRIENDS!"

James's eyes widened to the size of Galleons, he'd never heard Madam Cross so furious, so he quietly said "I'm thinking it's best not to hang about…"

"Oh finally caught on have you!" snapped Peter.

Remus hesitated casting a quick eye over the complete destruction of the Potions section of the library, and took the time to note that no human beings were over there before finally saying, faux brightly, "Right! Everything seems in order here… Let's go!"

Madam Cross was so close James could have sworn he could hear her heavy breathing and he compulsively checked over his shoulder "Yes, most definitely time to leave, I think," he said loudly after not finding anything but not keen on waiting to see how long it took her to find them, before running out of the library as fast as he could.

--

They came storming out of the library in a tangle, each trying to get out of the line of fire first.

"Oh for the love –" James cried out spinning back around to face Remus after managing to exit first, and almost sending them both to the floor in a heap.

"What the devil?!" cried a surprised Remus but James cut across him.

"_I'm_ supposed to be getting the love connection today, you twat, not you!" James half screamed with his eyes scrunch shut in defence of the groping he had just witnessed.

Remus leaned around James just in time to see the back of a beautiful blonde disappear around a corner.

"Sorry, Prongs," pouted Sirius, "but did you really have to scare her away, that's the first time she spoken to me since the library incident!" he continued to gripe. "She's going to start to thinking I humiliate her for the fun of it!"

"Oh I'm so _sorry_ for interrupting your snog session! But, in all fairness, you are in the middle of a bloody hallway – it's not exactly private!" snapped James before turning around to point accusingly at Sirius. "What you couldn't wait the few minutes it takes to find a broom cupboard or, better yet, the few hours it's going to take to solve my dilemma before trying to get your own jollies!?"

Sirius just shrugged and James moaned weakly bringing his hand up and covering his eyes trying to defend them from sights already seen.

"Sorry again, Prongs," Sirius said, not looking remorseful in the slightest. "Any luck?" he asked, casually diverting the topic.

"Does it look like it?" asked a frazzled Remus throwing a dirty look in Peter's direction.

James sighed despairingly before saying "I'm now a voyeur of _two_ disgusting sexual acts _and_ Wormtail is a destroyer of property and a disturber of the peace. But no, there was no Lily or any of her friends."

"Do I even want to know?" asked Sirius, amusedly watching as Peter tried to remove the paper from the bottom of his shoe.

"No," all three of them chorused as one.

--

AN

I know a lot of you like the semi responsible and smart Sirius and he still is those things but he's still hot (in my imagination anyway) and deserves to get a little action – and no he's not a whore - he likes this girl.

I am officially 24… I feel old – how pathetic is that – goodness knows what I'm gona be like when I turn 30! – thank you to everyone who wished me happy birthday!

Moving on swiftly – I hope you enjoyed this chap – I posted when I had 10 reviews just like I said I would – so keep that in mind when debating whether or not to leave me something!

Thanks for reading! x


	7. Close Encounter’s

They moved as quickly as possible away from the vicinity of the library and were once again wandering the hallways aimlessly hoping luck would strike.

"Wait!" James said, freezing in his footsteps and staring intensely down the staircase in front of them.

"What is it, James?" Sirius asked carefully.

"Red… I saw red," James replied.

"Are you sure? Because you're not exactly in your right mind," Remus asked hesitantly.

"Of course I'm sure! Do you think I haven't learnt to spot red hair from a mile away by now? I look for it everywhere I go, it's become second nature."

Sirius nodded, knowing that to be true but sighed nonetheless. "Even if you're right you'll never get down there in time, James, she'll be long gone."

James deflated a little before a fierce determination lit up his eyes "Wanna bet?" he said, right before he jumped lightly on to the banister at his side and went whizzing down arse first.

The three remaining Marauder stood stock still staring in complete disbelief at the place James had just left from.

"Holy shit!" cried Sirius suddenly breaking out of his reverie "Did you fucking see that?" he carried on, running over to the rail and leaning his body over the side looking downwards searching for James's crumpled body.

"_Whoa_, that's a twenty foot drop if he falls." said Remus with awe tingeing his voice, joining Sirius in his search of the floors below.

Not seeing James or hearing any agonising screams of pain Sirius turned to Remus and raised his eyebrows.

Remus looked back, mirroring the gesture not sure what Sirius was hinting at.

Peter got it immediately though. "_No_. No way, you're mental, there's no way!"

Sirius threw him a brief yet brilliant smile. "Suit yourself," before following in James's footsteps and jumping lightly on to the banister.

Remus watched him go expressionlessly before a smile began spreading across his face. "Why not?" he shrugged at Peter and promptly threw a leg over the handrail and let go allowing himself to speed towards the floor below leaving Peter behind to stare after him.

When he reached the bottom completely exhilarated he did not expect to go flying off the end of the banister like a leaf caught in the wind. His face contorted in surprise, the word bugger briefly flitting across his mind, before he prepared himself for pain. However, instead of crashing into the unforgiving floor like he expected he landed on a pile of relatively soft groaning bodies.

He gave himself a moment to allow his stomach catch up with his body before quickly scrambling off, saying "Fuck, are you guys alright?"

"Oh yeah, just peachy!" grumbled James, his cheek pressed into the cold stone floor. He grunted as Sirius rolled off of him before pulling himself to his knees. "You and Sirius just tried to kill me and that red head I pulled that stunt for turned out to be a fifth year _boy__._ But other than that I'm just _spiffing_!"

"Could be worse," shrugged Sirius from his position on the floor next to James.

At James and Remus's incredulous faces, Sirius gave a smile before saying "It could have been that really crazy chick from Hufflepuff…"

With that James surprised both boys by chuckling loudly. "Yeah you're right…"

"You're taking the disappointment well." observed Remus rolling his shoulders looking at James suspiciously.

"Yeah well," replied James, pointing towards the staircase, "that was so fucking cool it's hard to be annoyed right now."

The other two boys laughed at James's exclamation and agreed whole heartedly.

"Yes, indeed, it does look like a great deal of fun, does it not Minerva?" interrupted a familiar voice.

James closed his eyes in a moment of prayer before turning his head slowly, not entirely sure he wanted to look. He found himself sitting at the feet of Professor Dumbledore and McGonagall.

"Sir!" James exclaimed brightly with a large forced grin.

"James," Dumbledore acknowledged, his eyes twinkling, "Remus, Sirius –"

"Mr Potter!" Professor McGonagall interrupted sharply seemingly unable to keep quiet at such a blatant disregard of the rules despite the Headmaster's presence. "What on earth did you think you were doing?! This is a school not an amusement park! You could have fallen! What a childish thing to do, you are _not_ five years old anymore! This spectacle shows you have absolutely no regard for your own safety or the safety of others. Didn't you learn your lesson the last time I found you doing something this outrageously stupid?"

"Sorry Professor," all three boys mumbled.

"Oh I think we can let it go this one time, Minerva," Dumbledore intervened just as McGonagall opened her mouth to speak again, probably to punish them. "I'm sure whatever prompted such an act of daring was very important, right boys?"

"Oh it was, Sir!" Sirius grinned with a sideways glance at James.

"Speaking of which, Sir," James said returning Sirius's look angrily . "You wouldn't have happened to have seen Lily Evans, would you?"

"Well now that I think about it, I did just see red hair a moment ago, but unfortunately I'm fairly certain that that must have been Mr Prewitt. His has a decidedly more ginger tint to it than Miss Evans's. Correct me if I'm wrong but I would say hers has more of an auburn hue."

"Yes, you're quite right, Sir," James sighed sadly. "On both counts. It _was_ Prewitt and Lily's hair _is_ more auburn than ginger."

Professor McGonagall had pursed her lips during this exchange, and it was obvious to everyone that she was on the cusp of reprimanding them again when Professor Dumbledore took hold of her elbow and said "Come along Minerva, I missed lunch today and I'm simply ravenous. People, including myself, tend to act a little grouchy if not fed."

The boys all looked at the floor the moment McGonagall's head snapped from Dumbledore to them, in order to hide their smiles.

She noticed but before she had further chance to comment Dumbledore said "Well, what ever it is you were willing to go to such extreme lengths for, James, I'm sure you'll find it soon and probably in the most obvious place!"

James frowned at the seemingly useless comment but nodded his head politely in acknowledgement anyway.

Just as the teachers left, Peter stepped off of the last step raising his eyebrows at the boys still sitting on the floor. "So was it worth it?"

"At least I tried," James replied with a weak smile and a pathetic shrug of his shoulders.

"And we didn't get a detention," Remus added happily.

"I guess so," Peter replied watching them, amusedly, as they all attempt to get up off the floor.

Once they were all standing again and had all taken a moment to check themselves for injuries Peter decided to try and be helpful again. "Hey, Prongs, I was thinking… maybe she's in the toilet."

"What makes you say that?" James asked scrunching up his nose, a little disgusted.

"Well I need to go and it just occurred to me that maybe she did too… and anyway don't girls do that when they're upset; excuse themselves to the toilet?"

All boys turned to Wormtail and stared dumbly at him for a second.

"Way too much information," Remus mumbled.

"Really bad metal images," Sirius groaned, running a tired hand down his face, before adding "and offensive to women"

"Ah what the hell," sighed James. "What do I have to lose?"

"We _are_ running seriously low on ideas," Sirius acknowledged, watching as James leaned back against the wall behind him, grabbing at his hair and pulling as he slid down the wall.

"If you keep tugging like that you'll go bald, and then Lily won't want you anymore," Sirius supplied wisely and smirking widely when James frantically let go of his hair, checking his hands, shoulders and the floor around him for any follicles.

"Don't joke about things like that, Padfoot!" James said angrily, but on finding no hair had fallen out, his face relaxed a little. "You've met my uncle Alfred, he's been bald as a babies backside since he was eighteen."

"Yes," Remus said slowly. "But he also managed to ingest an obscene about of doxie dropping the day before he lost his hair –Are you planning on doing anything that stupid?"

"No."

"Well then I don't think you really have to worry, especially since the rest of your family has enough hair to clog a million showers and still have full heads of hair."

When James ignored him and continued to pat his hair gently Remus threw his hand in the air in a gesture of defeat. "Well she's finally done it, she's driven him mad."

"I always knew she would," Sirius noted in a sage voice.

Remus threw a dirty look at Sirius before spotting James talking to the air in front of him.

"Oh James for goodness sake, Sirius was winding you up, stop being ridiculous, your hair is fine!"

Sirius snorted.

"Sirius!" Remus snapped as James rushed over to check his reflection in a nearby window. "You're not helping matters, stop teasing him!"

Sirius merely rolled his eyes in response so Remus attempted to distract James. "James, checking the toilets is a bit of a long-shot I'm afraid, but…"

"But what?" he said suddenly eager again.

"Well there's one bathroom in particular I've heard girls go to when they are miserable."

"No," Sirius whispered in a fearful voice, his smile dropping instantly. "You can't be serious last time I went in there she nearly drowned me!"

"Yes well you _were_ flushing incriminating evidence down her toilet. How would you like it if someone hid their unwanted crap in your bed?"

"James leaves his shite there all the time, I even found a garden gnome once, I still don't know why he put it there." Sirius said gravely.

"Other than James," Remus sighed.

"Who's been near my bed?!" Sirius hissed angrily completely changing his attitude. "Was it April Bloom because I saw her hovering outside the room looking shifty the other day… I _knew_ she was up to something – what did she do?!"

"No one has been near your bed as far as I know, Padfoot, I was just trying to make a point— although I saw April too…" he added thoughtfully.

"Errr, guys, anyone going to fill me and Prongs in any time soon?" Wormtail asked tiredly, sending James a wary look fully expecting him to explode at any minute.

"Sorry," Sirius said.

"Yeah, sorry. Anyway we're talking about moaning Myrtle's bathroom," Remus supplied.

--

"Now James…"

"Be polite –"

"Be Nice—"

"No shouting –"

"No insulting –"

"I don't care how frustrated you are—"

"And whatever you do don't throw things at her—"

"What are you babbling about?" James grumped trying to push his way through Sirius and Remus who were standing in front of the entrance like a human wall as they laid down the rules in front of the bathroom.

"Seriously, James, if you don't listen to us you'll regret it," Sirius said.

"Don't be ridiculous, why would I throw things at Lily?" James sighed angrily. "Why would I insult her? – I don't know how you guys think this process works, but you don't do that to girls you're trying to convince to go out with you."

"Oh hush up! – you're not suddenly a love guru now that Lily kissed you. It was only once and then she ran away – not exactly a good sign, not mention you've been chasing her unsuccessfully for –" Sirius coughed cutting off in mid sentence as Remus elbowed him in the ribs.

He turned to glare a Remus hatefully. "What the bloody hell was that for?"

Remus discretely nodded his head in James's direction. Turning to look and seeing James's stricken face Sirius rushed to say "Anyway, we weren't referring to Lily, we're talking about Moaning Myrtle."

"Who?" James asked blankly recovering quickly from Sirius's insults.

"You haven't heard of her? Well you're lucky, she this miserable, temperamental ghost of a teenage girl who can't last longer than ten minutes without starting to wail like a banshee. Rumour is she died in one of the toilets in there."

"Oh rubbish," James said, finally managing to shove them out of the way and storm through the door. "How bad could one teenage bloody ghost be? Don't be such pansies!" he called over his shoulder.

"You have no idea." Sirius mumbled taking a deep breath before sharing a meaningful look with Remus and wearily pushing open the door and following James, feeling nothing but trepidation and foreboding.

--

"Hello?!" James called

"Lily?"

"Lily, are you in here?"

James stood still in the centre of the room listening intently for any kind of noise. He froze when he heard a gurgling noise from the end cubicle. He raced down the short isle and pulled open the final stall door eagerly with a cry of "_Gotcha_!"

Swiftly followed by him shouting "Fucking hell!" and stepping back so quickly he tripped over his own feet landing hard in a puddle of what smelt like toilet water.

"Oh that's just great! I'm so hideous I'm starting to scare boys into falling over!" cried a pearlescent figure.

"No—no" stuttered James out loud, but internally agreeing. "I'm s—s—sorry," he continued, too shocked to come up with anything else to say.

"No you're not!" Myrtle said grumpily.

"I am," he said, recovering quickly. "You surprised me, that's all –"

"What are you even doing in here?" she interrupted, looking at him shrewdly. "You're a boy and boys aren't allowed in here!"

"I was looking for someone. Lily Evans?"

"Oh of course you were, because no one would come in here looking for me!" she suddenly wailed causing James to lean further back into the toilet water puddle. "No one comes to see moaning, miserable, Myrtle!"

"I'm sorry; I didn't know you lived here. I'm sure had we met earlier –"

"Oh yes, I'm sure you would have come back regularly just like everyone else does!" she moaned sarcastically. "You're a nasty lying little boy, just like the rest of them, you only want to talk to me when you want something! Well I don't want to help you! I want you to get out and leave me alone! So get out or I'll scream so loud the teachers will come!"

"Now wait just a minute, you just made me fall in toilet water, you're kicking me out and you have the nerve to be angry at me?!"

"What's wrong with toilet water?!" she shrieked in response.

"Look, I don't have time for this!" he shouted, ignoring her. "It's a simple question so answer it, and then I'll happily leave you alone in your smelly toilet! So let's try this again: Have you seen Lily Evans?"

If it was possible for a ghost, Myrtle inhaled sharply puffing up angrily, clearly getting ready to scream.

James heard a snort to his left and saw Sirius barely containing himself back near the entrance, laughing so hard he was turning red.

"YOU!" Myrtle screeched as she swung her huge eyes on him, causing Sirius to sober quickly.

"On your own James!" Sirius and Remus called fearfully and, in unison, scrambled back out the door.

"Bloody cowards!" James shouted after them as the door swung shut.

--

When he finally escaped, his arse soaked through and his ears ringing, he eyed his traitorous friends angrily.

"Way to follow the rules James," snorted Sirius. "—Oh don't look at me like that, it wasn't exactly a life or death situation – like you would have stuck around given the choice," said Sirius, but obviously feeling a little guilty for deserting his friend so he used his wand to dry James soggy backside.

Seeing James still eyeing him crossly, Sirius said seriously "I wouldn't abandon you if I thought you were in any _real_ danger."

"None of us would," Remus interrupted with a smile.

James sighed running his hands through his hair.

"I know, I know… so where do we go next?"

--

A/N

Well as promised I got 10 reviews and I posted!

I have to make an honourable mention of a few readers for this chap;

Firstly to emerald-hazel eyes who wanted some Dumbledore and McG action – with "twinkling eyes"

Secondly to pippapear who wanted to see James "lose his rag" at Moaning Myrtle

And finally to cosmopolitan (who is also my beta) – she made a few comments when beta'ing the chap and I decided to add them to the dialogue.

Thank you's, to you all!

So you see what happens when you suggest things!

Thank you so much for reading and I would really love to get a few more reviews – it only takes a second but they make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside!


	8. Towers and Final Confrontations

"Merlin, don't those two _ever_ stop groping each other ?!" grimaced James as he lurched back through the door he'd only just entered through and onto the landing adjoining the Astronomy Tower, looking a little pale.

"How horny do you have to be to be at it in the library _and_ the astronomy all in the same day?" returned Remus as he closed the door with a loud bang. "_And_ to get caught both times as well?! You'd have thought they'd be a little more careful," he finished, tugging the door handle once more, just to be absolutely certain the door was securely closed and that his eyes were sufficiently protected from the travesty still continuing inside the room they'd just left.

"Well options for places to be intimate are _severely_ lacking in this castle…" Sirius mused.

"Yeah, I suppose," James agreed thoughtfully. "I mean, if it wasn't for our night time adventures, we'd all have much more trouble finding _private_ spots," he finished, gesturing to the other three and himself just as his body gave a disgusted shiver.

"Maybe they're just exhibitionists?" grunted Peter.

Sirius laughed at that. "True, or _maybe_ it's not that they like _just_ anyone watching… perhaps they like _James_ watching…"

"…Maybe they want you to join them! They want the Jamie love!" cried Sirius, still deeply amused by James and Remus's reactions to discovering Laura Smith and Paul Hope entwined together on a blanket, and completely naked, in the middle of the astronomy tower.

"That is a _truly,_ _morbidly_ _disgusting_ image, and I would really rather never have to think about it again," James quietly said before swallowing forcefully, trying to push back down the bile that had risen in his throat.

"What?" smirked Sirius. "It could be true; you're the one that's seen them _at it_ twice in one day… Or were _you_ purposely looking for _them_?"

"NO!"

Seeing Sirius raise his eyebrows sceptically, James cried out "LOOK! No one but Lily is allowed Jamie love, NO ONE!"

"Not even Handy McHanderson?" joked Sirius pointing at James's left hand. "_Dude_, no wonder you're so worked up – you can't leave things like _that_ to just _build_ up – do us all a favour and relieve some of that stress, life would be much more pleasant for everyone!"

"_Ergh_, that's ENOUGH! It's not even remotely funny anymore, it's getting down right perverted," winced Remus, eyeing Sirius and then James's left hand disgustedly.

"Yeah _please_ shut up, Padfoot," Peter sighed.

"No way! James is my best friend and this could be a real problem – what if _it_ doesn't work anymore?" he cried, then whispering quietly, as if frightened to bring the same fate upon himself, "What if it breaks from non use – what if it's already broken?!"

"_It_ works, Padfoot, trust me," James assured him with an angry glare, adding "and if you ever bring up either threesomes or my personal relief habits again I'll tell that fourth year who stalks you where you keep your boxers, your toothbrush _and_ where you live during the summer!"

They gave each other measuring stares before reaching out simultaneously and saying "Deal." as they shook hands.

Before spinning back round to face a still green Remus and a Peter who had slumped on the floor and started rubbing his temples during their conversation

"Are you quite finished?" Peter finally groaned.

"Yes."

"Good," interrupted Remus sharply. "So let's leave this place, it's been forever tainted in my mind and will from this moment onwards give me the creeps."

"Please, Remus, I don't see what the problem is, everyone does it," joked Sirius, shaking his head pityingly. "Do we need to have 'the Talk' my fury friend?"

"NO, we do not need to have the Talk! And yes I know everyone does it, but not everyone has to witness inexperienced fifth years going at it _and_ listen to a discussion on the nocturnal habits of the person who sleeps in the bed _next_ to them all in the space of ten minutes!"

"Who says they're nocturnal," grinned James.

"I really hate you sometimes," sighed Remus despairingly.

Sirius and James laughed loudly and even Peter chuckled lightly at the look on Remus's face as they all started to descend the stairs down into the main area of the castle.

--

"How about out there?" asked Remus, now fully recovered, and pointing outside towards the Black lake as they passed a window. "She's always at the lake with her friends on weekends."

"You know, that's really not that bad of an idea…" mused Sirius.

"Moony, you are a spectacular human being, I could kiss you!" cried James, dashing towards the main doors and out onto the grounds.

"After out last conversation you better not, in fact, if you know what's good for you, you'll never touch me again!" Remus called after him.

"Ahh come on, Moony, everyone wants a piece of the Jamie love!" James joked as he continued to run.

When he reached the edge of the lake he turned a full revolution, his bespeckled eyes, hopefully, taking in every minute detail they were capable of.

But it soon became painfully obvious she was not outside and as he realised James's shoulders sagged pathetically.

"Shit, mate, I was so sure she'd be here… I mean this is getting ridiculous!"

"You don't think she has your invisibility cloak do you, because that the only conceivable way she could have disappeared off the face of the earth like this!" Sirius cried, aggravated.

"No, the cloak is upstairs in the dorm; it was still there when I was looking for the Map, which was _after_ the incident with Lily."

"Oh," sighed Sirius. "Well then how the hell is she doing it, when you find out let me know – the knowledge could be priceless in the execution of pranks!"

"What's the matter, Potter?" a voice suddenly sneered cutting off James's reply, just before a greasy figure walked around the large tree they had been standing in front of.

And then, just to make James's day really perfect, there stood Severus Snape.

"Memories out the corners of my mind, misty water colour memories of the way we were!" sang Sirius as he waved his wand about warningly. He made no move to hex the intruding Snape, it was just meant to be a friendly reminder not to mess with them.

James threw a small smile at Sirius before turning serious eyes back to Snape.

"I didn't come out here for _you_, and I don't want to waste my time arguing with you right now or even _at all_, come to think of it– it's always the same thing… don't you ever just get tired of it? – can't we spend the rest of our lives pretending the other doesn't exist?"

Snape eyed James curiously before snorting. "Bugger off, Potter, how stupid do you think I am? The second I drop my wand you'll attack me."

"Believe whatever you want, but I haven't got the time for you right now so if you'd kindly move, I'll be on my way."

"Why, what's the rush?" asked Snape, open curiosity entering his voice despite his attempts to conceal it. "Who is it that you're looking for?"

When James reddened Snape's gaze cleared of its confusion and took on a hard look. "Judging by your reaction," he said coolly, "I'm guessing you're missing one Lily Evans. What did you do this time, Potter, push her down the stairs like in second year, or maybe you ruined the homework she spent hours working on, like you did in fourth year?"

"_Oh_, change the record!" James cried disbelievingly. "Do you even hear yourself; _second_ year? _Fourth_ year? Bloody hell do you even realise how long ago that was? All that's in the past now… I haven't done anything like that in a long time… _Let it go_,Snape… you never know it might loosen that nasty look on your face," James said shaking his head.

"NO! I don't care what you say, you're still the same disgusting arrogant toerag you've always been and…and she and I may not see eye to eye anymore, but I know you did something, so you better bloody well tell me what you did so I can hex you appropriately! That or I'll go get a teacher…" he left the threat hanging for a second before adding "I'm pretty sure you're meant to be in class right now, what a disappointment that would be; the Head Boy skipping class to piss about with his friends."

Seeing the Marauder's looking completely unmoved by his threat and realising they got in trouble with teachers all the time Snape changed his approach slightly and added "What would _Lily_ think… in fact I could tell everyone that you were out here specifically to torture me…"

"She kissed me, alright?!" cried James after that last threat, realising that if Lily heard something like that he'd lose his chance.

Luckily though, it seemed those words made Snape forget his threat and, instead, what little colour was left in his cheeks drained. "_You_? She kissed _you_?"

"Yeah, what about it?" James asked defensively.

"Nothing," Snape said quietly, "I just can't believe she finally caved."

He looked up and into James's eyes. "You can't wipe away all the years I've known her," he said quietly. "No matter how much she may want to, and because I know her so well, I've – I've known for a while that she was starting to like you… idiotic of her, though it may be," he said as if it pained him.

Then he gave a bitter laugh. "Oh how the tables have turned, eh Potter? Ironic isn't it – the scumbag she hated for years she now loves and the best friend of five years she now hates – I bet you think its _poetic_," he scoffed.

"No, I think its really sad," said James quietly, surprising Snape and the other Marauders who had quietly stepped back from the conversation as soon as it had started. "But I'm not sorry – you've _had_ your chance, you had her friendship, something I would have killed for and _you_ threw it away – you threw her friendship back in her face and – and it's _not_ my fault that you fucked up! And I'm certainly not going to apologise for it!"

"It's my turn now and I have to say to say thank you because you've shown me the perfect example of exactly what not to do – and you and your bruised ego gave me just the opening I needed. Without you around to whisper poison in her ear she finally started to see me for who I really am, and she _likes_ what she sees," James continued passionately.

"You brought this on yourself, _Severus._" James finished calmly and with those last words, that had obviously cut Snape to the bone, James turned around and walked away without a single hex or punched thrown.

Suddenly all he could feel when he looked at Snape was pity because he'd had everything and he'd blown it and James wouldn't wish that on anyone.

_It was a strange feeling_, James mused

"James, I'm proud of you," said Sirius as he caught up to him.

"Lily would be proud of you," added Remus.

"What, no hexing?" asked Wormtial disappointedly, but when the boys turned to look at him he grinned and shrugged. "I was joking, guys."

They all smiled slightly at that as they continued to walk away, shoulder to shoulder.

"I wouldn't say _no_ hexing." Remus said slyly after a few contemplative steps.

"Huh?" James asked.

Remus flicked his head indicating they should look behind them, a devilish smile spread across his face.

The group turned as one, and within moments their eyes had focused on Snape who now had tentacles sprouting from every orifice and trying to attack him.

"_You_ may have been able to restrain yourself James but some of us don't have the same Herculean strength." chuckled Remus.

The group spent a second longer taking in the scene before them before Sirius broke their silent camaraderie, disregarding the spectacle in front of him and looking upwards, "Buck up, James, I know today hasn't been your day so far, but I have one last idea…"

--

AN

Mwhahahah - did I mislead you with the chap title??

Moving on; This chap was a last minute addition hence why it wasn't updated as soon as I got 10 reviews – but it was close enough and you only had to wait a day!

I know it's a little more serious than normal – as I told the beta the original plan was to write something about the giant squid and perhaps some renegade nifflers - but this chap came instead and I think you needed to see that whilst James is a little frantic and stupid _right now_, he's not always like that - there has to be more to him if Lily wants to go out with him, doesn't there?

Honourable mentions;

WestSide Love and HungarianWitch22 who both said they wanted to see a Tower room in the fic – preferably the Astronomy Tower according to WestSide Love – I hope it fulfilled your needs

Pinappear asked where the cloak was so I added it in - I know it's not what you wanted – but hopefully my version of things will be just as good

and again to cosmopolitan (the beta) who was disappointed there was no hexing - so I added some in.

Keep reviewing people the more reviews the quicker the updates – _siriusously_! ... pretty please with some Jamie love on top!


	9. Evil Birds and the Most Obvious Answer

"No!" Sirius said stubbornly and a little petulantly.

"What was that, Padfoot?" James asked, cupping a hand around his ear. "Because I'm not sure I heard you correctly."

"I said 'no'," Sirius repeated, turning his head away from the stares of his friends.

"But it was your suggestion," James pointed out cheerfully. "And it was a perfectly logical and coherent one."

Sirius merely shook his head, eyeing the steps next to him worriedly.

"What the matter, Sirius?" asked James, smirking having seen the direction of Sirius's gaze. "Are you _nervous_?"

"Bugger off, I don't get nervous!"

"_Oh_, so you're scared?" Remus teased, trying to keep a straight face.

"I don't get scared either!"

"Could have fooled me, especially after that very manly squeal you gave when I suggested _you_ be the one to look," James teased.

"Awww," Wormtail said in a baby voice. "Is the itty bitty puppy frightened of a few measly weasely birds?"

"NO!" Sirius cried as he cringed a little.

"Are you sure? Because it sure _seems_ like you are to me," James noted gravely.

"I'm absolutely fine and I am most definitely _not_ afraid of birds!"

"Me thinks he doth protest to much," Remus said, eyeing Sirius's pale face interestedly.

"Definitely," Wormtail chuckled.

"Come on, Paddy," James said, also eyeing Sirius. "All you have to do is pop your head around the door and have a quick look, it'll take two minutes max. How much trouble could you or the owls possibly get into in such a short amount of time?"

"Er, James?" Remus interrupted quietly with a frown. "That's not really the best thing to say – we're Marauders we don't even need _thirty_ seconds to get in to trouble sometimes, let alone two minutes…"

"See!" Sirius cried frantically. "I could get into all sorts of trouble, please don't make me go!"

James just shook his head unsympathetically and pointed up the staircase.

"But _why_ do _I_ have to go up there, why can't someone else?" Sirius whined one last time, uncrossing his arms from his defensive pose.

"Because I said so!" James shouted, his amusement quickly fading.

Sirius's shoulder slumped in defeat upon hearing James's adamant tone.

"You're doing this just to spite me," Sirius said grumpily. "You _know_ I hate birds! – But fine… just – fine… but if anything happens to me, _you_ no longer get all my stuff, Prongs, Moony does!"

"Hey now, aren't you overacting a little?" James asked, smiling and looking completely unconcerned.

"_NO_! At least Remus doesn't seem to want to kill me!" Sirius pouted, stomping his foot a little before spinning on his heel and staring to ascend the stairs to the owlery without another word.

--

Sirius had been gone so long the boys had taken seats on the bottom step leading up to the owlery.

"Maybe someone should go look for him," James finally said a little guiltily.

"No need, you bastards!" a shaky voice said from behind them.

They spun around quickly, paused, then promptly fell about laughing.

"It's not bloody funny," Sirius said in an annoyed voice.

"Oh I beg to differ!" Remus gasped.

Ignoring Remus, Sirius shouted "Look at me! I'm covered in feathers and bird shit!" before spinning and shoving an angry finger directly into James's face, causing him to reel back.

"_You_!" Sirius shouted continuing to point wildly at James. "_You_ did this to me on purpose! You _knew_ what would happen and you _still_ sent me up there! Do you have some kind of mean, twisted vendetta against me and my personal safety?"

"Oh stop it! _You_ convinced us to go to Hogsmead, y_ou_ didn't have to face the fiasco that was the library _or_ stick around for that crazy ghosts tirade!" said James, still chuckling lightly. "You apparently spent the time snogging a beautiful girl, then cowering with Remus… it was _your_ turn for a bit of a disaster!...and frankly, well, I couldn't be bothered to climb those stairs to check a place Lily almost certainly wasn't. I need to save my energy."

"If you knew she wasn't there why'd the hell did you make me look, you unmitigated wanker?!"

"It was your idea, and you never know," James shrugged. "What can I say, I'm getting desperate – that _and_ I wanted to punish you. Don't worry though, you are now officially off the list!"

"Damn list – never leads to good things," Sirius mumbled, finally giving a slight smile. "Fine, I guess I deserved it _a little_."

"So… do I still get your stuff?" James asked returning the smile.

"I suppose so," Sirius grumbled good naturedly before smiling widely. "But only if you give me a hug," he said, spreading his arms wide and exposing his bird soiled robes even more.

"Er, no thanks, I've changed my mind Remus can keep it – you probably don't have anything I want or that didn't belong to me in the first place anyway," James replied hastily, backing away.

"Aww, James, don't be like that," Sirius said, coming increasingly closer to James's clean clothes.

"So any luck?" James asked quickly, holding his hand up in defence, hoping to distract Sirius.

Sirius looked at him weirdly but stopped in his pursuit and, instead, he looked around himself exaggeratedly. "Do you see a temperamental red head?"

Seeing James's eyes flash, Sirius hurried to say "No, no luck but there was a lot of shit and some very _frisky_ birds," he demonstrated his point by twirling around and giving the assembled group a proper show of the damage. "– _And_ Regalus's bird bit me, the little bastard, I don't know how he did it but I bet he organised that bird uprising!" he exclaimed, holding up his right hand and displaying a deep cut on it. "I always thought that bird would make a better ornament than pet – _Hey_" he said hopefully "do you think that could be arranged – you know without it coming back to me?"

"Really, Padfoot?– You, of all people, are suggesting animal cruelty?" Remus asked sceptically, watching as Sirius cleaned his robes with his wand.

"It's a cruelty to allow that pest to carry on maiming innocent peoples' hands—" Sirius defended, waving his blood covered hand about, making sure everyone got a good look.

"That's enough!" James shouted throwing his hands out angrily and turning to face Sirius "No, we are not going to go around attacking innocent old birds Padfoot – and for Merlins sake can't you two ever just be helpful – must you always debate everything!?" James finished wearily interrupting what was sure to become a production.

"Hey we are being helpful! We're here aren't we? And we're missing class!" Sirius returned offended.

"Ah yes… about that," Remus said just as the bell for the end of class rang. "Look, James mate, I love you, I'd walk through fire for you, face a gang Death Eaters for you, but – but I should really go to my last class," he finished with a sigh.

Sirius looked scandalised. "Come on, Moony, when have we ever been afraid of missing a class, especially when we have something as important as this to do?"

"I've already missed two! We've searched everywhere obvious, unless James intends to start bursting into every classroom and closet in the castle again" Remus defended indignantly. "And I'll thank you not to besmirch my reputation as a rule breaker, Sirius!"

Then he turned to James and said "If it was any other class I would skip to continue, it's just I really can't miss Defence, Professor Hoon is a real bastard and I'm already lost as far as the current topic goes."

"Lost, Moony? Don't you think you're being a touch melodramatic, when have you ever not gotten something by the second try?"

"Thank you, Padfoot, you continue to flatter me, but despite appearances I have to work for my grades, as do you, despite what you pretend for the rest of the world – I know for a fact you can't really afford to miss it either!"

Ruffled, but conceding to the point Sirius gave a sad yet resigned nod.

"I'm sorry," James said with a pathetic sigh of his own. "It's okay, Moony's right, I don't think any of us can really afford to be missing any more lessons – it _is_ NEWT year after all."

"I can't believe you just said that –" Sirius said chuckling.

"There'll still be plenty of time to find her afterwards," Remus interrupted bracingly, throwing Sirius a filthy look.

"Oh yeah, a whole ten minutes before she'll have had enough time to hide away in her room," James grumbled morosely.

"It's better than nothing," Peter offered quietly.

"Ergh," James grunted, already starting to take steps in the direction of their next class, when he noticed they weren't following him, he half turned and waved at them to catch up. "Come on, if we're going we better get moving!"

After a few feet though his eye suddenly took on a wild crazy look and he shouted out "CLASS!"

"Yes, we've established that: we have to go to class," Remus said slowly, starting to worry for James sanity again.

"No, _class_! Defence class to be specific! – I have Defence now!" James continued, a maniacal smile overtaking his face.

"Yes," Remus said slowly and still slightly confused. "We all do, isn't that what we've just spent the last five minutes discussing?"

"Yes, but it's Defence!"

When the others stared at him blankly he elaborated "Defence, you idiots! Defence with _Lily_!_"_

"Shit!" Sirius cried now smiling along with James. "Why didn't we think of that before?"

"Because that would have been too simple?" Remus tiredly queried.

"Shut up, you morons, what the hell are you waiting for, stop wasting time and _MOVE_!" James bellowed.

"Alright, master, calm down, master—we're going, we're going!" Sirius mumbled, mock bowing to James.

James gave Sirius a shove encouraging him out of his dramatics and into moving forward but when the group wasn't moving fast enough James gave a disgruntled groan and shoved past them whispering "Wankers" as he bowled through.

The boys stood surprised, and watched as he created a path through the thronging students like a knife through butter.

Sirius suddenly moved forwards.

"What's the rush, Padfoot, you got a race against the clock for a girl as well?" Remus called.

Sirius snorted. "You must be drunk if you think I'm gonna miss this!" he returned over his shoulder, grinning foolishly.

--

A/N

Ohhhh is this it, or am I going to leave you hanging again? – Do you think my version of Lily is the type to skip class or is she going to be there with bells on?? – Well, you'll have to review to find out.

;D


	10. Bloody Mess

They arrived at the Defence class room in record time, James's eyes frantically scanned the hallway where only a few student were currently queuing.

"Excellent, she's not here yet, that means I won't miss her _and_ when she does turn up she won't be able to escape."

"Um, not to put a downer on it or anything, but what if she doesn't come?" Peter asked quietly, a little fearful of James's reaction to his question.

"Not even I could scare Lily out of coming to class," James assured him confidently before frowning concernedly. "Could I?" he asked, nervousness entering his voice.

"I doubt it," Remus reassured kindly.

They waited and waited, but she didn't turn up and before James could think of an excuse to leave before the lesson started, so he could keep looking, Professor Hoon was striding down the corridor and they were being ushered into the classroom.

"Fuck, bugger, shit, - fuck I'm so messed up I can't think of anymore expletives!"

"Wait, you can use the word expletive but you can't come up with any more swear words?" Remus chuckled incredulously. "_Wow_, this is more serious than we thought!"

James sent Remus an evil look.

"Wanker," Sirius supplied cheerfully with a smile, distracting James attention from Remus before one of them got hurt.

"Crap," James added with a small smile.

"Bollocks," offered Remus, as a peace offering

"Stink nuggets?" Wormtail thoughtfully tried.

All the others turned to him and looked at him weirdly before James let out a loud snort quickly followed by Sirius and Remus.

"Thanks guys," he said gratefully once he'd calmed down. "I needed that," he told them before sighing and turning his attention to the front of the room, ideas for ways to get incapacitated enough to be allowed to leave Hoon's class within the next hour running through his head.

Just as he was contemplating asking Sirius to hex him there _she_ was—out of breath, ten minutes late and radiantly flushed.

With a quiet "Sorry Professor" and one scorching, indecipherable look in James's direction, she took a seat three places down from him, next to Jennifer.

His eyes tried to burn a whole through the side of her head, but she desperately and stubbornly avoided all eye contact, refusing to turn her head in his direction.

After the adventures in trying to find her that day, finally seeing her made him feel like what he assumed a starving man feels like when he has food in front of him again. _She's so beautiful_,he thought to himself, unable to take his eyes off of her, his gaze drawn the soft lips that had only hours ago been pressed against his.

He allowed the class to continue, drowning out the Professor's voice and not paying the slightest bit of attention to anything but the side of Lily's head. He even went so far as to lay his head on his hand, hoping to catch her sneaking a look at him.

But she didn't turn and soon the rest of the class was preparing for a practical session.

That was when he decided he'd finally had enough. He couldn't wait any longer, the professor be damned.

He wanted it to end then and there.

"Psst… _psst_! Lily?!" he whispered leaning even further forwards to look around Sirius and Jennifer who were sitting in between them.

"Oh come on, Lily, please!" he begged quietly, sending a wary eye around the classroom looking to see where Professor Hoon was and giving Sirius a smack to the back of the head as he snorted at James's pathetic begging.

When she still didn't respond he sighed angrily before tearing a corner off of his notes and scribbling a quick note pleading with her to talk to him after class. He threw it and it landed neatly right beside her arm.

She noticed it and his heart soared, only to sink past his feet, as she picked it up and lobbed it into the rubbish bin a few feet away from her.

He felt heartened again, though, when Jennifer leaned towards Lily, after casting James a pitying look, hoping she may convince her to talk to him.

It was just wishful thinking, though, because after a furiously whispered conversation between the two girls Jennifer's shoulder slumped and she turned sympathetic eyes on James before mouthing "Lily says; STOP IT or we'll all get in trouble"

James ignored her. "_Psst_, Lily?"

"Is there a problem, Mr Potter?" a deep voice said from right behind him, startling James into sitting up straight and nearly breaking Sirius's nose.

James quickly tuned his head to find Professor Hoon leaning directly over his shoulder and into his personal space. "Of course not, Professor!"

"Don't lie to me, please, Mr Potter!" hissed the professor. "I am not in the mood for your games today, so tell me, before I get annoyed enough to give you a detention, why were you making a sound like a deflating balloon? Do you have some kind of abnormality I have yet to be informed of?"

"No, of course not, Professor, I was just – just exercising my mouth muscles," said James, finding the eyes of _almost_ the whole class on him by then.

"I _see_, care to explain _why_?"

"So that they are fully prepared to annunciate the spell correctly, of course, I find it terribly useful" James said seriously, nodding his head for emphasis.

"Psst, psst," James demonstrated, forming his mouth into various distorted shapes. "It's all in the movement, see Sir?"

"Not really, Mr Potter," Professor Hoon said with a long suffering sigh. "But I trust you are quite finished now?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Well then, ten points for wasting my time with your drivel. Now get back to work and _please_ try to concentrate, I know that's difficult for a person with the attention span of a goldfish, but this spell is rather delicate and has a tendency to backfire if not done properly. I would hate to have to deduct more points from you for time wasting because you got injured."

"Yeah, never mind my health," James whispered to Sirius under his breath as the Professor arrogantly strode away.

Sirius laughed quietly before turning away from James, his face morphing into a picture of concentration as he held his wand aloft and pointed at the object in front of him.

As soon as James was left to his own devices he tried again to get Lily's attention

"Come on, Evans, _please_, we need to talk—" Seeing the Professor's eyes on him James froze mid word and quickly and sloppily tried the spell hoping to appear like he was working but just having a difficult time mastering it

The problem, however, was that the Professor hadn't been lying when he'd said the spell required concentration, so when James made his half arsed attempt it surprised no one but James when his wand backfired—sending a shot out of the end, followed by a loud bang and a rebound that sent James's body crashing back in to the desk behind him, causing him to hit his head astonishingly hard.

"James!" cried out several voices.

Within moments Sirius worried face came in to focus and just as darkness began to swim at the edges of his consciousness, he, perhaps a little foolishly, thought he could hear Lily's voice in the mass of noise, before he dismissed the idea, his much abused head must have been mistaken…

But just as his eyes closed he could have sworn he saw auburn.

--

As James slowly came back to consciousness he became very aware of a painful methodical throbbing in the back of his head

"Okay, _ow_!" James groaned, finally opening his eyes fully after laying quietly for a minute or two trying to adjust to the pain and his new surroundings

As soon as they were open he desperately tried to scramble further back into his pillow – having woken up to Sirius's face looming over him.

"Dude, thank goodness you're alright," Sirius said, without giving James time to adjust and sounding incredibly relieved.

"What—?" James started before smacking his lips together, his mouth feeling incredibly dry.

Noticing, Sirius passed him a glass of water.

James gulped it greedily before trying again. "What happened?"

"You weren't paying attention in Defence and your wand backfired, the explosion knocked you backwards and you hit your head, there was _loads_ of blood – literally a puddle of it… I have to say, you had me really worried," Sirius said, avoiding James's eyes a little.

"Oh."

"But at least we got out of Defence," Sirius joked trying to lighten the mood.

Disregarding the seemingly unimportant facts of his cranial damage and missed class James quietly asked "What time is it?"

He'd said it inaudibly, almost hoping Sirius hadn't heard him, already knowing what he was going to say and desperately not wanting to hear it – to hear that his time was up.

"Six o'clock," Sirius said in voice that matched James's. "Sorry, mate," he added, truly concerned and sorry for his friend.

"That's okay," James said, gulping. "I just – guess it's over."

--

A/N;

Well the elusive Evans returns – but I'm guessing it wasn't quite the reunion you were expecting – MWHAHAHAHA!

Patience, readers, patience

Was my chap title appropriate?

Only one more chap and an epi to go! So please please review!


	11. Never Easy but Always Worth It

"You alright, Prongs?" Sirius asked, eyeing James warily.

"Why is it never easy?" James asked, his head in his hands as he sat in Lily's favourite chair in the common room, having been released from the hospital wing as soon as he'd drunk a healing potion. "Why does it never work out, why does it have to be so damn _hard_?"

"I don't know – " Sirius admitted quietly.

"Look, we're working on the idea that she would hide away in her room after classes so James couldn't get to her right?" Peter interrupted suddenly.

"Yeah," Sirius replied tiredly.

"Well maybe she's been there the whole time, maybe that little first year, the one that James intimidated into looking in her dorm earlier, lied," Peter continued with a hopeful look, sad to see James looking so miserable. "_Maybe_ she told the kid not to tell James she was there, or maybe the kid had absolutely no idea who they were looking for and that's why they couldn't find her!" Peter continued.

"She's Head Girl, you idiot, of course the kid knew who she was!" Sirius snapped on James's behalf

"Yeah, okay, but think about it; she can be _really_ intimidating sometimes…maybe the kid lied because Lily threatened to eat her head or something."

Remus snorted at the image and said "So what's your point?"

"Well, that, maybe we should try again."

"No," sighed Sirius. "Even if that was the case; if Lily intimidated that kid into not telling us she was there, she sure as hell isn't going to let someone else drag her down to us, is she?"

"True, but I was thinking we could look ourselves?" Peter tried, hesitantly, when James continued to ignore the conversation around him, seeming to have given up completely.

"And how do you propose we do that?" Remus asked incredulously. "I don't know about you, Wormtail, but I have a penis and as long as I have that appendage I'm not getting up those stairs without it turning into a slide – and no offence, James, but there is no way I'm going far enough to cut it off, just for your relationship with Lily," Remus finished, as he leaned back in his chair with his eyes closed.

"I don't know how but we can work it out!" Peter brightly assured them.

"Again, how? Do you have any ideas?" Remus groaned, wishing Peter would just shut up.

"_No_, but stop being so pessimistic – Come on, remember what Padfoot said earlier: we're the Marauders and we've overcome worse obstacles than this! Where's your marauder spirit?!"

"It went away round about the time this day started to go tits up, and it left _officially_ when James split his head open in pursuit," Remus whispered harshly.

Peter looked around the group despairingly, casting distressed eyes on Sirius, expecting him to make it better, but seeing Sirius looking just as hopeless as James it inspired him to take action himself.

"_Fine_, you won't do anything," he declared after a moment. "But I will!" With that he stood and marched resolutely over to the girls' staircase, he eyed it warily for a second before taking a running jump.

He landed four steps up, and just as the staircase turned into a slide he flung out his arms and grabbed hold of the stair rail with all his might.

Remus had gotten up to watch what he assumed would be Peter's absolute, and hysterically funny, failure. But instead found himself watching in admiration as Peter heaved himself a few feet closer to the top of the girls' stairway.

"No _way_," Sirius murmured as he wandered over and stood next to Remus, also staring in awe at Peter's miraculous ascent.

Peter went to heave again but suddenly had to plaster himself as close to the wall as was physically possible, trying to avoid a poor third year girl who had obviously not looked before she stepped, and not realised that there was a slide instead of a stairwell.

She squealed in surprise, and then delight, before landing with an "oomph" at the feet of Sirius and Remus who both stared at her for a second before helping her up.

The moment she was on her feet their eyes whipped back up to watch Peter who was just about to make it to the half way point.

"GO PETER!" Remus joyfully cheered right before the wailing screech of the alarms set on the girls' staircase went off.

The noise startled Peter but he hung on hoisting himself the last few feet and on to the landing, he lay on the floor panting and, unable to believe that he'd made it.

As soon as he stood up, he turned around quickly and looked down at his friends in delight, to find not just Sirius and Remus staring back at him but also a humongous crowd that had gathered behind them.

As soon as he was facing them, the crowed cheered wildly, Sirius and Remus wolf-whistling right at the front.

Peter blushed and was so caught off guard by the unexpected noise that he wobbled slightly and came precariously close to toppling down the newly formed stairs.

There was a mass intake of air as he wobbled but as soon as he'd stabilised himself there was another roar of approval from below.

"Which room is hers?" he shouted down with a beaming smile.

"Last door on the left, its right at the end of the corridor!" called a familiar voice from somewhere at the back of the mass of people.

Peter nodded in acknowledgment of the information before he turned around and jogged off down the hall in search of her room, leaving the crowd below in suspense.

A few minutes passed before Peter returned again, when he did another spontaneous round of applause erupted.

He grinned and took a bow before jumping lightly onto the first step and gliding down the stone slide, being deposited at the Marauders' feet.

"_Spectacular_," grinned Sirius, offering him a hand up off the floor.

"Yeah, never would have thought you had it in you," Remus smiled approvingly.

Peter smiled proudly back at them.

As soon as he was on his feet and the crowd realised the fun was over, people started to disperse, with the odd person coming up to pat Peter on the back.

"Well did you find it?"

"Yeah, and man is her room is a mess! Moony, if you saw it you would have a heart attack, I think one of the piles of clothes was _breathing_" Peter said shuddering.

Sirius snorted before saying "So mutant piles of clothes but no Lily?"

"No Lily." Peter confirmed sadly, casting a worried look in James's direction.

--

"You should have seen it!" Sirius cried proudly as he walked over to James, thumping Peter on the back as he walked.

"Did it work?" James interrupted without raising his head from his hands.

"YES" shouted Sirius delightedly. "It was a magnificent attempt – he _made_ it – none of us have ever even made it _half_ way before!"

"That's great," James said emotionlessly. "But she's not up there, is she?"

"No," sighed Sirius losing his excited high, he pulled out his newly acquired goods from Hogsmead and placed a shot of firewhisky in front of James.

James looked at it for a long time before saying quietly "I knew it. I knew it was useless to even try, because nothing seems to work," before turning his tortured eyes on Sirius. "You know I'm really starting to think that it just wasn't meant to be."

"I'm really sorry, James," Remus said as he sat on a nearby sofa.

"Me too, mate," agreed Sirius as he perched himself on the arm of James's chair, hovering protectively.

"Oh shit, I'm an awful, despicable, disgusting human being!" Peter cried from his newly reclaimed place on the floor, causing his three friends to stare at him

Noticing their confused gaze, he elaborated "I'm so sorry, this is all my fault if I hadn't have been acting like the complete moron that I am, I never would have lost the map and then this never would have happened! Shit, I can't even find the words to say how sorry I am," Peter repeated, putting his head in his hands.

"What are you talking about, Pete?"

"Isn't it obvious? If I hadn't been a moron and lost the map then you would be with Lily _right now_."

"_Shit_, Peter, when are you going to learn there is a right time to say something and then there's a really fucking bad time to say something?" asked Sirius incredulously sending a worried look in James's direction and discreetly reaching for his wand in case James lost it altogether and decided to attack Peter.

"No, don't worry, Sirius," James stopped him, having seen Sirius's defensive movement, and knowing his friend well enough to have foresee the action anyway. "I'm not going to attack him in a fit of rage, I don't even think it's his fault! I just needed someone to blame earlier, but the truth is, if I hadn't frozen like I did Lily never would have gotten away from me in the first place. Hell, Lily can't have liked me all that much to begin with, if she did, she never would have left as soon as she kissed me."

When James finally looked up at his friends, all he could see was pity and regret on their faces, confirming what his brain had been trying to tell him all along; _that it was hopeless_. Not being able to stand their sympathetic looks he decided to excuse himself to the dorm, under the pretence of his head still hurting, where he could sink into his misery without the eyes of others on him.

"Fuck, mate," Sirius said as he walked James to the stairs. "I really didn't think things would end up like this."

"Me neither, Sirius, me neither, but it is what it is. And what it is… is over," James said, choking on the words as they came out.

Seeing Sirius's troubled face James said "Don't worry mate I'll be fine" and as he started to climb the boys' staircase he whispered to himself "eventually"

He opened the door to the dorm desolately, feeling completely inconsolable and wanting nothing more than to curl up in his bed, in the pitch black and wallow for the next few days – it would have been months if he thought he could get away with it.

He kicked off his shoes not caring where they landed, the room was still a mess from earlier anyway, then he dragged his feet over towards his bed and flung himself down face first onto the mattress, his arm landing on something soft and warm.

Not expecting to feel anything but cold sheets he freaked out, he jumped off his bed so fast he fell over landing painfully on his arse for the second time that day, before hurriedly reaching for his wand and wildly pointing it towards where he assumed the warm lump was.

"Merlin's ghost, I didn't mean to scare you!" said a light female voice. "Are you alright?"

"Fine," James responded automatically before finding the presence of mind to light his wand.

When he ignited it he found himself inches from the concerned face of Lily Evans and he nearly shouted out a second time.

She quickly put a hand to his shoulder in an effort to calm him.

It worked too because suddenly, instead of shouting, all James could do was stare at her hand, unable to comprehend what was happening.

Following his eyes she self-consciously removed it and, instead, sat down in front of him on the floor crossed legged. When he failed to say anything, Lily opened her mouth but the words seemed to die in her mouth and a blush stained her cheeks.

"Are you alright?" she finally managed to ask. "I mean from earlier, I can't believe you had to go to the hospital wing… I was really worried, there was so much blood," she said reaching out to tentatively touch the bandage the matron had insisted he keep on for a few hours. "I'm surprised she let you out," Lily continued as James allowed her to inspect him silently.

Finally he swallowed heavily, repeating "I'm Fine" before grasping her hand and pulling it away from his head.

"I tried to go with you, but Hoon," she said uncomfortably, putting her hand back in her lap, "he would only let one person go and I think Sirius would have tried to maim me if I had gone instead of him."

"It's fine." James mumbled in an emotionless voice. "I'm fine so there's no need to worry."

At his tone her nervous eyes finally met his.

"I'm so sorry for running out on you," she finally said, causing James's eyes to widen, he had not expected her to get to the point so quickly – in fact, he was expecting to be the one to have to bring it up.

"It—it wasn't very grown up of me – but it took you a while to really respond and then you didn't say anything after…and I couldn't bear the thought that you didn't like me anymore, that I'd made a huge fool of myself…"

His brain finally registering her words he frowned at her, accusing heatedly "You didn't really give me a chance to do much of anything!"

"I know!" she cried defensively in response. "I – I just couldn't bear to see your reaction, to see or worse _hear_ you say that you didn't want me anymore – I wasn't really expecting to just attack you like that, it's not like I planned it! It took me by just as much surprise as it did you!"

"I doubt it," he scoffed. "And what the hell do you mean you didn't plan it?" he asked incredulously. "Who gives a shit if you _planned_ it, you don't just run away after something like that Lily no matter how much you love or hate a person!"

Her eyes dropped to the floor ashamed. "I know, but I already said I was sorry and that I was being stupid, selfish and childish, I don't really know what else to say."

"Do you know I have been searching every where for you today?!" he said abruptly, raising his voice and making her cringe. "I was absolutely frantic all day – I thought I'd run out of time! It's almost seven now!"

Expecting her to shout back at him he was incredibly surprised when all she said was "So?"

"So what?" he asked suddenly, just as confused as she appeared to be.

"So what if it's seven? What has the time got to do with it?" she asked, clarifying.

"So it's over."

"Over because it's seven?" Lily asked, even more puzzled.

"Yes, the school day is over – you'll never speak to me again, I've lost any chance I ever had at being with you!"

"Just because it's almost seven o'clock?" she asked again bemusedly, beginning to smile.

"Yes!" he cried, frustrated.

Lily looked at him strangely. "Why wouldn't I just talk to you tomorrow?"

James stared at her with his mouth open, looking like a brainless idiot. "Because – because – Sirius – Sirius he said…"

"James," Lily sighed catching on to where the conversation was going

"Yes?" he answered distractedly.

"Sirius is an idiot who doesn't understand a thing about me – surely you must know that by now?"

James stared at her in shock before slowly letting a smile spread across his face. "You mean," he started hesitantly, "it's not over – I've still got time to tell you I love you, convince you it's true and then beg you to go on a date with me and kiss me again?"

She blushed a little, but nodded her head fervently in the affirmative.

He grabbed her hand and squeezed it tightly as he gave a relieved laugh. "You would not believe what I've been through thinking that I'd lost my chance – that you'd be too angry at me to ever talk to me again—"

"At first I _was_ angry," she interrupted, "and hurt _and_ convinced that I never wanted to see or speak to you again, and then I realised what an idiot I was being – I realised you've been putting yourself out there for years, embarrassing yourself –"

"Thanks, Lily, that was just the look I'd been going for!" he smiled at her fondly, rolling his eyes.

She gave him a small smile in return. "I happened to think it was a little cute."

His eyebrows shot into his hair line, but she ignored it and continued. "You've been humiliating yourself in front of me for years - having me reject you over and over and –and I guess I just figured I should at least give you the courtesy of facing my feelings head on… just like you would have – have been," she amended, "doing for years. So I came up here to wait for you – I only left to go to Defence."

"What?" James croaked, suddenly feeling like he couldn't breathe. "All – All this time you've been _here_ waiting for me… on _my_ bed…??"

She nodded shyly. "I hope you don't mind, I promise I didn't look through anything, it was just the only place I could think of where I knew you would have to go eventually."

He ignored her, not even slightly bothered by her being in his room with access to his stuff. "I don't fucking believe it," he cried making her flinch. "After all the places I've searched today it turns out that you've been _here_ the whole time?!"

"Is that how you got this?" she said pointing to the bruise on his cheek where he'd fallen off the banister earlier. "You were looking for me?"

"Yeah," he mumbled distractedly kissing her fingertips gently, seeing her guilty expression. "Don't worry it was worth it," he said focusing on her eyes.

"…but what I really don't understand," he said, suddenly incredulous, "is why I have to make life so difficult for myself?"

"I like you just the way you are…" she said softly.

James stared, opened his mouth to say something but at the last minute changed what he was going to say "I really don't have anything to say to that –"

She looked down disappointed

But before she'd had time to really submerge in the misery of seeming rejection she heard him quietly repeat "I can't believe you were here the whole bloody time!" right before she found herself being pushed back on to the floor with James lying on top of her kissing her hungrily.

She didn't even hesitate before opening her mouth and allowing their tongues to tackle fiercely.

Suddenly though she pushed him off of her.

"What is it?" he asked concernedly, with slightly glazed eyes. "Shit, you _do_ want this, don't you?" he questioned, suddenly worried. "I thought you wanted – I'm so sorry," he said steeling his heart as he prepared to pull away.

Lily rolled her eyes and used a hand to hold him on top of her, she then wiggled a little before using her other hand to pull a quill, a couple of gobstones, and one of Sirius's t-shirts out from underneath her.

"Sorry," he chuckled sheepishly. "I became a little frantic earlier whilst looking for something, and I kind of made a bit of a mess."

She smiled at him and said "It's fine, I've never been very tidy or organised myself. Believe it or not this is only a little worse than my dorm. In fact, the only reason I think it's worse is because I can see what I think to be a pair of Sirius's dirty underpants,." she finished, her eyes flickering to a pair of boxers hanging off the end of the bed next to James.

James grimaced as he pulled her to her feet. "Sorry… let me make it up to you?" he finished before pushing her once again, only that time she found herself flat on her back on James's soft, comfortable, obstacle free bed.

"Better?" he asked as he pulled the cord on his bed, obscuring the rest of the room and, therefore, the mess and Sirius's pants.

She grinned at him in response, and finally situated comfortably they both immediately carried on where they had left off.

--

They had spent the whole evening that way; kissing and talking. But for the last twenty minutes or so they had been lying together quietly. About ten minutes before James had started to stroke Lily's hair, telling her about his day and his frantic search for her. She was just starting to fall asleep, and James was watching her eyes droop affectionately, when he asked quietly "I'm really sorry, Lily, but do you think I could just take a minute to tell Sirius?"

When she gave him a strange look he said "I know it sounds weird but he'd want to know, he's really worried about me and well he's been helping me all day, I really think I owe it to him to let him know everything's turned out aright."

Lily gave James a small indulgent smile. "Of course, I understand - it's a little weird mind you, but I guess that's just who you are," she chuckled.

Smiling like a kid on his birthday he leaned in as if to kiss her again but instead took her by complete surprise by suddenly yelling out "SIRIUS!"

Lily, who was already looking at him as if he was mad, was shocked a second time when all he did in response to her surprised gasp was kiss her lightly, smile at her, and then shout out, again, "SIRIUS!"

"WHAT?! What is it now?…" Sirius trailed off as he burst into the room, his eyes widening slightly at the sight of Lily on James's bed and in _James's_ arms

Before James had time to say anything Lily had cut across him. "That's amazing!" she said, pulling away from James and standing up in awe. "Does that just work on them or can I do it?"

James shrugged looking at her strangely. Lily circled Sirius as though inspecting a piece of art or an interesting potion before suddenly bellowing out "JENNIFER?!"

Sirius fell away from her, clutching his ear. "Good Gummy bears, Evans, could you have been any louder?"

"JENNIFER?!" Lily shouted in response.

"Prongs, make her stop, I think I've gone deaf in one ear as it is!"

James ignored Sirius's entreaty and just watched Lily with warmth sparkling in his eyes and an amused smile on his face.

"JENNIF—"

"Enough!" roared Sirius seeing James was going to do nothing and choosing to take matters into his own hands.

Lily blinked at him over the top of the hand he had placed over her mouth.

"Ew!" he cried suddenly a disgusted look over taking his face.

"What?" James quickly asked.

"She licked me!" cried Sirius, pointing an outraged finger directly into Lily's smirking face.

James rumbled out a laugh, pulling Lily back down with him onto the bed and kissing her soundly. "Come on love, be nice and leave Padfoot alone, he's not very gracious when people outside our group mock him."

"Weirdos, the both of you?" mumbled Sirius, but with a smile on his face nonetheless.

Ignoring Sirius's jab, James just said to Lily "You are amazing and worth every single second of effort it took to get us here."

She smiled at him and just as he leaned to kiss her again Jennifer bellowed from the doorway "For the love of Merlin woman, what the hell do you want?!"

"Whoa," Sirius exclaimed, staring at Jennifer in amazement. "I honestly didn't think that would work."

Lily smiled gleefully from her position beneath James and he loved the look on her so much he knew he had to kiss her again.

So he did.

--

AN

Oh it's so sad! Only the epilogue to go now and then its _over_! I'm so sad!

I hope you enjoyed my ending – was it what you expected or did I manage to surprise you??

Thanks to Izabella Pheonix who wanted them to check the girl's dorm

And thank you for reading!


	12. Epilogue

They were all seated in the boys' dorm, Sirius draped across his bed with his usual casual elegance while Remus and Peter sat on the end, all engaged in a half hearted game of poker. Lily and James were wrapped up in each other lying on James's bed talking quietly.

Disturbing the calm in the room, Peter looked over at James and Lily reminiscently and asked "What are we going to do next – we haven't had an escapade in ages."

"Yeah, we have been decidedly lacking in fun recently. The plan 'lost Lily flower' was the most action we've seen since we came back to school," Remus added.

Lily scoffed at the code name, but kissed James's cheek lightly, resting her head against the side of his, wrapping herself more closely around him, so close that her breath gently fanned over the side of his face. James turned to her immediately, tightening his hold on her, affection and protectiveness radiating off of him in waves, he kissed her lips tenderly in return before smiling gently at her.

"Well," Sirius said slowly, ignoring the couple's public display of affection. "We still have to find the map…"

That got all their attention, including James's, which was quite the feat, under the current circumstances.

"Actually, I have a suggestion for that," Remus said slowly, carefully eyeing each boy.

"Well don't leave us in suspense," James urged after an exaggerated pause.

"Perhaps we should… leave it… wherever it is…"

There was outcry at those words, James sat up so quickly he almost dislodged a surprised Lily from the bed. Turing back to her hurriedly and helping her to resituate herself he looked at her apologetically, but she just rolled her eyes at him, looking deeply amused. Seeing that she wasn't angry he turned back to Remus and continued where he had left off.

"Seriously think about it," Remus said, raising his voice to drown out their protests.

When they had calmed down he carried on. "We're leaving soon, and we know more about this school than anyone else anyway so it's not like we _need_ it anymore… it could be our…our…" stuttered Remus, looking for the appropriate word.

"Legacy," Lily supplied, smiling and looking between the boys laughter shining in her eyes resting a hand on James's neck soothingly.

"Legacy?" Sirius questioned thoughtfully looking between Remus and Lily.

"Yeah… thanks, Lily," Remus said. "Let's leave it for someone else to find and make good use of. Imagine it! We've been looking for that one final prank, this is perfect: 'The Marauders, always helping to keep the noble tradition alive'… we'll be helping mischief makers wreak havoc long after we've gone and become grown ups – even when we're old and boring we'll still be Messer's Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, purveyors of aids to magical mischief makers."

The boys alternated looking between each other for a moment, seemingly having a silent conversation, a knack born from years of friendship.

"Yeah, our _legacy_, I like it," James said eventually, on behalf of the group, with a definite nod of the head as if it made the decision permanent.

"But what about our kids? I always just assumed we'd pass it on that way," Sirius said with a frown.

"All we have to do is hint at it, tell them it _exists_," Remus said. "Let them find it themselves… if they are truly worthy –"

"And anything like us – " added a smiling Sirius.

"They'll find it!" James beamed.

"The Marauder legacy-" Sirius tested the words on his tongue before turning bright, challenging eyes on James. "Bet my kid finds it before yours, Prongs."

James opened his mouth to respond, but Lily beat him to it by scoffing. "Please Black, faced against my intelligence and James's _special_ talents, your child wouldn't stand a chance!"

Suddenly she found three pale and one cherry red face staring at her. She was disconcerted by the sudden attention and a little self-consciously she asked "_What_?"

"Nothing, Lils," said James recovering with a small smile, his face returning to normal. "It's really good to know you want our relationship to head in the same direction as me… but _still_, it's a bit of a surprise to find your girlfriend of two months talking about your future off-spring just like she would talk about the weather."

"Oh!" she blushed lightly and looking confused at her own actions. "Sorry – I just – it just kind of slipped out – I didn't mean to imply – I'm sorry..."

Seeing her embarrassment and confusion starting to take over he lay back down, pulling her with him, and rolled over on to his side so he could look directly at her, moulding their bodies together. "Don't be sorry," he said quietly, yet fiercely. "Don't ever be sorry for wanting those things with me, I want them with you too, and I refuse to apologise for that, and so should you."

Lily gulped, and questioned, worriedly, "Isn't this a bit fast?"

"We'll if we'd only just met I'd say yes, but we've know each other 6 years 3 months and 15 days, I think that's long enough for me to be certain about how I feel. And, anyway, I'm not talking about right now or even soon… but perhaps _eventually_?" he asked shyly.

She smiled tentatively, eyes sparkling, and nodded her head slightly, showing she was not adverse to the idea either.

He beamed at her before tugging her even further in to his arms and kissing her passionately, pushing her backwards until she rolled from her side and on to her back. He settled his weight in between her legs, making sure not to put too much weight on her.

Lily, however, moaned into his mouth quietly before reaching up and, with what little space was left between them, grasped his shirt collar and pulled him heavily down on top of her so that his body covered hers completely. James let out a huff of air on impact, but continued to kiss her back heatedly; his hips starting to grind against hers gently and he started to slip a hand underneath her shirt.

Remus coughed uncomfortably before saying, in a loud voice, "_Right_, well I think that's our cue to leave" before ushering the other Marauders out the dorm door.

On the way out, though, Sirius took the opportunity to shout "Fine, I'll just allow you to run me out of my own room _as long as_ the procreation of the Potter line doesn't take place on my bed!"

James lifted his head and looked towards the doorway truly mortified by his friend, but Lily just giggled into his chest coming up to kiss his neck softly.

She lifted a hand to James's face and gently coaxed him to look away from the door and back at her.

"I'll do it where ever I damn well please, Sirius!" Lily mischievously called, her eyes never leaving James's as she ran one hand teasingly along the edge of his trousers and used the other to pull his jumper over his head. She laughed again at the shocked look on his face, before sighing happily and pulling his lips back to her own.

_END_

--

AN

And so it ends - I'm really going to miss this fic and all its reviewers :(

I hope you enjoyed the gratuitous snogging – I just couldn't resist

So I guess there's nothing else to say except; thank you for reading, reviewing and all your wonderful suggestions... and I'll see you at the next fic?!

p.s. sorry about the chap title spelling mistake, I changed it within moments of posting but it takes time for FF to update the change - what a note to finish on eh? lol

Lalas x


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